


Found

by IchBinEs



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, An enemy threatens the world, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Friendship, Hurt Tony Stark, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Slow Burn, The title sounded better in my native language, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, more friendship than romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-07-24 00:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 77,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16169552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IchBinEs/pseuds/IchBinEs
Summary: After the Avengers split into "Team Iron Man" and "Team Captain America" and the connection between these two teams abruptly stopped, a new power saw the chance to seriously threaten the world. The captain's team tries to prevent the danger, but they can only do it with the help of the others.





	1. Prolog

The rough fingers touched the black button beneath the expensive mahogany table.

Although extra-large windows adorned the walls, the dark blinds made little light fall into the room, giving the man's appearance a dangerous look. Leaning in his chair, the fifty-eight-year-old was awaiting the report. The remaining three fingers on his left hand drummed the melody of Mozart's "Little Night Music" onto the cold leather of the black armchair. As James Burkwill waited for his mediator, his gaze swept through the circular room.

The white walls with the few black, yet fashionable aspects did not attract his attention after all this time. His eyes clung to the left edge of his big table. The three pictures of his children and his wife were in good hands in the golden frame. Jannik, his youngest son, five years old, grinned happily at the camera. In the background of the picture, one could even see Ellen, the nine-year-old daughter sitting on the swing. She had her own frame right next to it. As so often, James had caught her playing the oboe as he shot the photo. She smiled discreetly into the camera when she saw her father. And then there was the last picture. His wife, for so many years. The brown eyes both Ellen and Jannik must have inherited from her, shone with joy.

Quietly, the doors opened to the large room and the two rapporteurs came in. The one on James’ left side was new. He glanced around the large room, fascinated by the expensive floor, the modern, yet sumptuous design, and the technology, right behind James' chair.

Only once had James seen this new worker. _Kima_ , he remembered. _After secular years, thirty-three years and five months old. Born with a two years and three months younger sister. A foster brother, seven years and five days younger than him. Good relationship with the mother, moderate to the father, who declined to excessive alcohol consumption seventeen years ago. Contact with all family members broke off almost completely four years, four months, and almost nineteen days ago._

He would be a good mediator in a few years, James knew that. Because of his unwanted stay far away, he had learned to speak many languages and met some races that most simple-minded people could not even dream of.

The other man had been with James for a long time. Peter Krum, that was the name of the forty-seven-year-old. He had accompanied James for twenty-one years. He had been one of the first to follow his call and join him. Together, the two men had to fulfil a mission that should soon reflect the work of the last two decades. For so long, James had been waiting for this day, for so long he wanted revenge.

"Everything went well, we have the support," said Peter Krum. He knew James Burkwill was not a man who talked a long time around the bush. With him, you had to get to the point quickly.

On James', for his age, well-kept face, a rare smile spread. The ice-blue eyes lit up.

Stark should get his revenge soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus, Google Translate improved well. Took way shorter to translate this than expected. So, that’s kind of nice. I wrote this story a long time ago, actually started like two years ago, right after watching Civil War. Then I made a break somewhere in the middle. The story gets way better once we come to that point. If they first couple of chapters are more like semi-nice, keep in mind it really gets better.  
> I posted that story on a german page and finished months ago but kind of missed it to post. And since another story I’m working on isn’t finished yet and I’m scared that Avengers 4 will destroy my will to live, I thought, why not post it now? I also was told to post here, so why not.  
> English is not my first language, I also often mix up British and American English, so sorry for that. But Google Translate is like a half-god now, so that’s very nice.  
> I really hope you enjoy this story.
> 
> Oh, I will also ignore everything after Civil War, so no Spiderman-action here, nothing with Wakanda and stuff.  
> Plus, the chapters will get longer, it's just that short for the very first chapter. 
> 
> I wish you a wonderful rest of the day!


	2. Chapter 2

The forest was sparsely lit by the lantern. The only sound that could be heard was the ever louder getting sound of the engine of an old car. The silence was overwhelming, especially because the observer knew exactly what would happen.

As the loud crash of the car against the tree pierced the silence, Tony flinched unconsciously. He was looking for a way out, but he did not find one. Then the motorbike drove back. The silent biker walked purposefully to the driver's door, just behind the smouldering, destroyed bonnet.

The old, blood-spattered man had managed to escape from the car. Searching for help, he looked at the younger man, who pulled him by the hair.

"Help ... help my ... my wife," he tried to ask the brown-haired. It did not take a second before the first hit hit his head.

"Howard," Maria exclaimed in pain, but the man did not hear it anymore. The biker needed only seconds to kill Howard Stark. He put the lifeless body roughly back in the car and ignored the passenger's weeping. Slowly he rounded the car, fully aware of his task.

Tony's body cramped in pain, but he kept watching, unable to escape. The brown-haired man did not even look at the wounded woman, but grabbed her neck with his uninjured arm and squeezed. Maria Stark had no way to defend herself and after a few seconds, she also lifelessly slumped into her seat. The Winter Soldier looked emotionlessly into the distance before turning to Tony and pointing the pistol at him. The shot was loud and echoed through the forest in the cold night.

His assignment was fulfilled.

 

Tony cried out loud. Sweat dripped from his forehead and had soaked his sleeping clothes, and his stomach cramped in pain. Breathless, he propped himself up and put his hands on his knees. He choked, but nothing left his mouth. Trembling, he wiped the tears from his eyes, which had crept in there in pain or fear.

His skull ached and his throat seemed to let no air through. He closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating on everyday things. The red alarm clock. The big window. The black wardrobe.

Only slowly could his breathing calm down again. Tony put his head in his hands. How long had he slept? Three hours, maybe four? It was too little and his body yearned for rest. It hurt.

Pepper had ordered him to sleep, but it seemed to have made things worse. Had he better kept talking to her, that helped, even if it was late at night, thanks to the time difference. Ever since the incident in Siberia, it had become an almost daily routine to talk to her, even though she could not get away from her location in California and Tony couldn’t leave Rhodey alone in New York. He missed her, he missed that he had someone with him who knew everything, with whom he could talk about everything.

He also talked to Rhodey, Natasha or Vision, but about trivial things so they could think he was fine. He had put Rhodey in enough difficult situations, he did not want to complicate matters further with his problems. Natasha had already had enough problems to return to the United States and Tony did not believe that the way they had irritated each other, at least for the first few days, was a sign that she could be treated with the burden of his own problems. Often, she went away from the headquarter, to do whatever it was she was doing. But when she was there, she always seriously tried to help Tony, but he did not want to pull her to his side, where it had worked so little last time.

He talked to Pepper _seriously_. She was the only one who knew everything about him.

She was the only one who knew what had happened in Siberia, what Tony had seen on the video. She was the only one who knew why Tony had been so hurt by being betrayed by _Steve_. She was the only one who knew so many secrets from him.

Tony sighed. He needed Pepper here. The nightmares with his parents were the worst.

Often he still saw the wormhole or the fight with Steve and Barnes. It hurt, but when he saw his parents, he always remembered his childhood. All the things he'd buried so well in the last years.

Now all came up through this video again. In front of other people, he still managed to bury those emotions. But when he was alone, ...

Bucky had killed his mother, Steve had known and then defended the killer. Natasha, Rhodey and Vision did not know what had happened back then, they just knew _something_ had happened. He didn’t want them to know. It was unfair against Steve and Barnes.

He had told Pepper everything and at some point, after talking to him for many days with various arguments, he had realized that Barnes had been brainwashed and that Steve had defended him for that reason.

Tony closed his eyes again. Still, it was not a reason that one of his best friends had nearly killed him with the shield. Tony could not understand what he had done wrong, that Steve had attacked him that way.

That he had kept that secret from him, what Bucky did _to protect him_.

Fuck it.

Steve had preferred Bucky to him, had gone away and was now being searched. Tony had tried to arrange things so that they could be acquitted again, but Steve would not sign the deal. He was sure.

With a booming skull, Tony slowly stood up. He had to wait a moment before the room stopped spinning. Slowly he sipped to the bathroom.

A little bit of water on the face to wake up halfway and get the pain away from his head.

It was a mistake to come here, he kept telling himself. In the mirror above the sink, a man looked at him, whom he did not know. His hands clenched on the edge of the sink as he stared down at his sunken cheeks and strong dark circles underneath his eyes. A bad shaved beard and uncombed, in many places already with grey strands intersected hair grew much too long.

The eyes that used to shine were dull.

He turned quickly.

He still heard Pepper calling him "old man" back when she was here for a weekend two weeks ago.

He should go out again, she said, to sleep as one should, not only once a week in his own bed and otherwise in the cot in the workshop, but for a long time, eight hours a day in his room. Maybe get a man or a woman if it helped.

Tony had assured her that he would do it. He would try to improve. And he did not do it.

 _Damn it, damn the Avengers_.

The other heroes in the headquarter were obviously worried about what was wrong with him, after all, he looked so bad and even the cheeky sayings he kept dropping no longer came as fast as a shot, as they used to be. They seemed tormented as if he would do everything to ensure that no one noticed what was wrong with him.

When Rhodey had asked about it once in a quiet moment, he just dodged the questions and blamed it on getting him so worked up that it was his fault that Rhodes could only go with help and also, so it slipped out, that he missed the presence of the others.

Tony shuffled slowly from his large room to the elevator.

He didn’t want to wake the others; Natasha often woke up at the slightest sound and she would probably try to bring Tony back to bed again.

But he did not want to sleep at all, never again. The nightmares became worse, and even though he would never admit it, not even to Pepper, if that was going to stay so for a long time, the great Anthony Edward Stark would perish.

 

He needed his Steve again, who used to take him in his arms, in which he felt these very special moments, where he realized how much he had been crushed on him. Of course, no one should know, and besides, he was more than disappointed with Steve and even more angry.

He teamed up with a soldier he used to be friends with seventy years ago, who was a murderer, instead of just telling Tony? How could he still feel so much for the soldier?

"Fuck the brainwash," Tony murmured under his breath as he pressed the button on the elevator.

As the doors opened softly, his thoughts finally wandered to his experiments down in the workshop. The only pastime that made him forget all of that. Never, when he concentrated, did he think of Steve, Bucky, his mother or his own past. He sank into his work, often ate nothing, drank too little, worked through thirty-six hours at a stretch, sometimes even longer, when no one came down to remind him he needed to sleep.

It bothered him when someone entered his workshop. A property he must have inherited from his father. Even though as a child he never wanted to be like the man who gave him his name, he lately often shockingly found parallels.

For both, nobody was allowed to go to the workshop, even though the methods of punishing this rule break were different. Tony grunted grudgingly at the unwanted visit, sending him out, sometimes even talking to him briefly, while his father ...

Tony hand touched the place on his cheek where he had been hit the first time in his life. He had been seven years old when, one night, when he thought the whole house was sleeping, he sneaked into the workshop to get to experiment properly. Not only in "his" workshop, his nursey where he could build light circuits and stored a lot of theoretical stuff, but in the big one.

Unfortunately, there was another common ground and Howard Stark also worked at night. So, about twenty minutes and a powerful speech later, Tony laid crying and distraught in his mother's bed and had a long night ahead of him.

And they had one last thing in common, Tony noticed: they both played great pieces by Steve Rogers.

Only Howard died before the captain was found and Tony had lost him again.

By his own fault, he thought. They should have signed the contract together. He knew that he and Steve were the unofficial leaders, that everyone would either follow him or the soldier; there were hardly any other possibilities.

As the doors opened he lazily shuffled out of the elevator and went through the large glass door into his workshop.

He was about to finish his Mark XLVI, the 46th suit. There might be a time he actually had to suit up again, the guessed. He has not used his armour since the fight, but he had to pass the time somehow. At the beginning, there were Rhodey's legs, afterwards he worked on a variety of small technologies and the suits of Natasha and Rhodey and finally on his very own.

When he let his eyes slip through the workshop, he tensed completely. He cleared some things from a cupboard yesterday but did not notice what was behind it due to his fatigue. The round shield with the star in the middle almost grinned at Tony.

Slowly he went to the closet. Beside the shield laid a letter and an old cell phone.

 _I promise you, if you need us – if you need me – I’ll be there, S_ teve had written. Tony snorted. _Where are you now?_

For a very brief moment, he stared at the cell phone, secretly hoping that it would suddenly light up and Steve was at the other end of the line.

Steve, with whom he had spent so many beautiful moments. Steve, with whom he wanted to spend his life, even though he knew it was never going to be the way he hoped the most. Something ached in his stomach and his shoulders stiffened. He looked around, searching for somebody to spy on him, but there was no one.  

Before he knew it, he had picked up the cell phone and was about to press the contact list when he remembered what he was doing. He sighed and waited for something to happen, he just hold the cold phone in his hands. But nothing happened, everything was as quiet as always, as _empty_ as always.

Slowly he put the phone back in his seat, slowly turned away from the shelf and wandered to his desk. He needed the distraction.

"Boss, do you want a coffee?" Friday asked Tony.

"Hmm," Tony muttered and let himself fall onto the chair. He pushed his hand over his face and just waited for a second.

"Boss, you were last here at two o'clock in the night, which was just over 3 hours and 30 minutes ago. The security settings make me remind you that more sleep might be healthier for you."

"Really, Friday?” Tony asked annoyed. “First you offer me coffee, and then try to moralize? By the way, you weren’t even created for that shit,” he added quietly.

"Excuse me, boss, it was just a protective reflex. Dum-E will bring the coffee immediately. "

"Great. Hurry up, Dummy! ", he shouted at the machine, while he already grabbed a wrench.

After only a few minutes - the first cup of coffee was emptied fairly quickly - Tony was completely immersed in his work. The nightmare and all other bad thoughts were pushed aside, and Tony slipped into his own world.

 

His hands put almost automatically many cables together in the next few hours. Concentrated, his gaze shifted between the new leg splint and the computer screens. The music played loud in his ears, but he only noticed it marginally.

Eventually, it stopped abruptly.

"Tony? Do you hear me?"

The mechanic jumped. Natasha stood next to him, arms crossed, looking down at his work.

"Um, huh?" Tony asked very intelligently. His hands moved nervously at the shock of the woman suddenly standing next to him.

The Russian sighed. "How are you today?"

"Fantastic as always," he replied quickly. He just didn’t want to talk. He was putting the finishing touches on his new suit, and if he got distracted now, he could make big mistakes.

He turned back to his tools, hoping that Natasha would leave him alone, having only tried to do some small talk. A stupid idea, she was not like that at all. She would not sneak into his workshop just to ask how he was.

Instead, she doubtfully raised an eyebrow, let out a powerful breath, and started talking. "If you say so. Perfect. We need you now."

"Why?" Tony asked without taking his eyes off the track. "Is the TV broken? Did Vision make the kitchen burn? I'm sorry, I have something crucial to do right now. Can you give me that screw there, please?", he asked, pointing to a small piece of metal that had fallen off his table.

"Tony, how long have you been down here?"

"I don’t know. What time is it? Doesn’t matter,” he pulled his chair to the screw that Natasha had not even glanced at and picked it up.

"It's just after three o'clock in the afternoon. Now put the tools away, it's important," she said, staring at Tony emphatically.

For a brief moment, the older man pretended not to have heard her but eventually sighed. She would not go away, and her eyes made him restless and unfocused. Sometimes, when two stubborn people met, one had to give in. He looked up in annoyance.

"What is it?"

"Friday, please show the news. Your creator here gets nothing from the outside world, I'm afraid."

"Of course, I'll tick you the CNN News."

On the big screen in front of Tony, a window appeared in which an elderly lady - in her mid-fifties, Tony guessed - quickly spoke into the camera. The grey hair of the woman whirled around in the strong wind, while in the background people ran in panic across a wide street and pointed to the sky. Something Tony couldn’t yet see was there.

A short text always ran underneath the woman in the line of the news: _BREAKING NEWS: Unknown object flying over Toms River heads to Philadelphia --- eyewitnesses report to have seen Avengers fighting on the plane --- Secretary of Defence speaks of acquittal for the searched Avengers --- BREAKING NEWS_

"The object is slowly moving towards the metropolis, you can even see the explosions from down here, a few hundred yards below the plane. Just now we got the message that the fighters at the place are certainly the sought-after Steven Rogers, alias Captain America, who keeps the danger at bay with other Avengers, presumably Clinton Barton, James Barnes, Samuel Wilson and Wanda Maximoff. Whether the last of the searched-for Avengers, the as Ant-Man known newcomer Scott Lang fights on the plane, cannot be confirmed yet", the woman clenched her hair with one hand, as a particularly violent windstorm swept through the street. Helicopters flew up in the background, though there was still no danger to see in the camera.

"Certainly," the reporter went on, "reigning Defense Secretary Ashton Baldwin Carter said that those Avengers should for now act freely and do everything in their power to avert the unknown danger. He also calls for the other Avengers, who are reportedly still at their headquarters near New York City, to come and help defeat the threat. At the moment, nobody knows what sort of creature we are dealing with here. A corpse is said to have fallen off the plane and still be recognizable due to a supernaturally stable skin. It should probably be an alien species. The local police, however, leaves no reporters to the corpse. The Special Operations Command is currently on the fastest route to Toms River, and security measures around the world are being strengthened at this historic moment. Angelina Miller from CNN, back to the studio."

The picture flashed on a huge flying object in the air, which looked almost like one of the helicarriers on which Tony got together with the Avengers for the first time.

Several hundred yards long, and about three hundred feet wide, the huge plane slowly flew over the dark, stormy sky.

 

Tony's heart pounded loudly in his chest.

"What? How...," he stammered slowly to himself.

"Tony, we need you, now. Now you must move out of this workshop and come along. We need you. We need the Iron Man."

"I ...," Tony didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t help. He was tired, suffering from severe headaches that had come back and most of all, he didn’t want to face Steve. His stomach tightened, and again he felt like he had to vomit, but he held back any gag reflex.

All the time he had wished he could meet the others somehow, but now that he got the chance, a lump in his throat opened. He felt sick as he thought of the blond soldier who betrayed him. Besides, Barnes was there. The man who had killed his mother, the man to whom he owed this whole situation.

He saw pictures popping through his head again. His father came home tired from work, pissed off because there was no news of the whereabouts of Captain America, his great hero. He grumbled at the little boy because his toys were lying on the floor, and besides, he did not practice playing the piano as he had agreed to but read a simple children’s book.

Then he saw his parents going off to their trip, Tony just said goodbye to his mother.

Barnes, who shut his mother's throat.

Steve, who said that he had known and suddenly rammed a shield into his chest, almost into his head.

Tears gathered in his eyes. No, he would not cry in front of Natasha. She had not seen him weak yet, he was not allowed to change that now. His lips trembled slightly, but he was still staring at the screen on which another reporter was doing some analysis of the combat.

"Tony, it doesn’t matter what happened back then in Siberia, this is not about you or Rogers or anyone else," Natasha urged. She went a step closer. "This is about the world. And you must help protect her. Several people, _millions_ of people are in danger."

Tony shook his head slightly. His eyes stared at some point in the distance.

"I can’t. Natasha, I ...," he stopped, his voice thinner than expected, much weaker, reflecting his reality. "I'm not feeling well, I would hinder you. I've been working all day, I'm sick, I don’t want to bother...," he admitted and hesitated. He did not meet Natasha's eyes. "I’m sorry. I can’t go with you, but you have to. You are enough. Wilson, Barton, Maximoff, probably Lang too ... and Rogers and Barnes. You don’t need a man like me. My suit is not even finished yet. Go ahead, I would endanger you."

Stunned, Natasha stared at him.

Then she nodded, almost understanding. Her eyes shot through the workshop and stopped somewhere behind him. She walked quickly past Tony, to the shelf where the Captain's shield was kept. She took it and then left the workshop far too quickly. He had disappointed her, hurt her. She felt the way he did the last two months and three weeks.

Tony did not say anything against taking the sign, he just stared after the woman.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again, then picked up his wrench and put the last few handles on his new suit.

Without being able to influence it, Tony turned around and stared at the empty space on the wardrobe. He sighed.

Something was missing.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> I had no idea how to put “a several hundred meters” into something with feet, so I had to use yards. Even though I think that’s nothing Americans use.  
> Also, Ashton Baldwin Carter isn’t the Secretary of Defence anymore, but because this is set in 2016 I just used him. It’s James Norman Mattis now, just in case you are interested.  
> Furthermore, if I make grammar mistakes or something, please tell me and I'm trying to fix and remember it. I know it can be super annoying if somebody just doesn't seem to be able to write correctly. 
> 
> I wish you a wonderful rest of the day!


	3. Chapter 3

"Clint, go left!" shouted Steve Rogers to his companion. The huge flying ship was littered with unconscious or dead aliens.

For some time now they were fighting the aliens; Steve couldn’t even estimate how long it was going on.

Big and stubborn were the green-brown aliens. Her skin was made of such a solid material that it couldn’t be smashed in many places. Some monsters had horns growing out of their heads or shoulders that were sharp and dangerous.  They made roaring noises when injured or when they attacked, and it was incredibly loud on the ship. Hundreds of these creatures were running around on the deck and it seemed to be getting more and more.

They had all seen the danger from their hiding place in the forest, just a few miles from Toms River, a small town in New Jersey. Since the fight against "Team Iron Man" they had to hide away; they had been searched by the government, and after Bucky had healed and thawed again, they had said goodbye to Wakanda and made their way back to the States to grow silent and unnoticed contact with Natasha in the hope that she might help to find a permanent solution.

But when the flying ship slowly appeared across the Atlantic, they had to intervene.

Steve could still remember the big shadow that had suddenly darkened the whole environment. Just then did they look up and saw the danger: The grey floor of the huge plane had a threatening effect. Slowly the ship had pushed through the afternoon sky; Steve had wondered why no one had seen it, but there was no time to think about the question. As fast as they could, the group had suited up with their partially badly repaired or even newly made armour and somehow Falcon had managed to transport them all gradually to the ship.

Steve had first landed on the ship with Bucky. When he finally felt the ground under his feet again, he was glad, but this joy didn’t last long: When he arrived, these huge beings had been distributed all over the ship.

One of them had noticed them, made a thunderous scream, and ran toward them.

It was faster than expected and Steve could only jump quickly, so the creature had fallen over the edge of the ship and dropped hundreds of feet down into the stormy day.

After that, the other monsters made their way to them, slower this time.

And since then they were fighting.

The others had all followed and were able to provide good support, but exhaustion was noticeable in each of them.

 

Although Steve was able to snap, throw and catch his makeshift metal shield from Wakanda almost as quickly as at the beginning of the fight, Clint's breath was already audible.

The sweat ran down his forehead and the mercilessly strong wind made the other's hair constantly move.

It had to be worse for Sam, who flew constantly in the air and probably the worst for Lang, who was small and repeatedly transported by Sam and thrown off in very specific places to hit the beings in the vulnerable places.

Wanda, who was now slightly behind Steve, had given him back cover at the beginning. The last hundred or perhaps one hundred thirty feet of the ship, now lying in his back, were now free of the monsters, and Wanda, whose arms were already trembling with exertion, caused beings on his side to fly into the air and die.

 

Again Steve attacked a big creature. A broken horn on the monster's forehead looked threatening on Steve.

It ran clumsily toward him and Steve focused on the spot at the neck, on which the monsters were killed instantly.

As the monster ran towards him, he quickly turned to avoid the deadly hit of the big claw. With a roar, the creature turned back to Steve when he noticed no resistance on his hand. Angrily, it looked at the captain. At least that's how Steve felt, he was not sure if the creatures had emotions.

Rogers waited for the monster to move toward him again. This time it tried to hit with both claws and already started to, but Steve stood still. It was not until the monster's big hands moved swiftly down that Steve turned away. The creature couldn’t react and only shouted as it touched the grey ground with its hands and leaned forward.

Steve took his chance and held his shield tighter as he took a step forward. The metal shield quickly hit the monster's neck. One last time it roared before it fell forward and died in a severely dislocated position.

Steve quickly pulled the shield out of his neck and wiped his forehead. His gaze swept across the battlefield, over to Bucky, who had just dealt a deadly blow to one being, but now headed straight for the next, over to Wanda, who was visibly exhausted trying to keep fighting, and over to Falcon, who was spinning in the air, and again and again flew toward the ground to kill more aliens.

 

Far from it was the main building of the flying ship. The large complex, which was built of grey steel, was littered with antennas and other equipment.

Somehow they had to bring the ship under their control. If they were able to take control, they could at least avert the danger from the vast city of Philadelphia.

Steve had to get inside the ship.

 

But there were still about a hundred meters of the deck in front of him and then he still had to somehow find a control room or perhaps a kind of power supply through the building.

"We won’t be able to take over the ship just like that," Wanda screamed suddenly. "There has to be a kind of centre that all of these beings protect. If we have it, we’ve got the ship! "

Steve just nodded, because now he had to act. More and more beings poured out of various gaps in the ship. The few government troops who had come behind them were firing at the monsters as best they could, and his team did what was possible.

Steve raised the shield as a huge, brown fist slammed against his face. He saw Clint shooting many arrows one after the other, while to the right Bucky threw swear words at the monsters that were attacking him.

In contact via the intercoms in their armour, Steve received the information from Falcon that more aliens were coming from the front. The situation became increasingly hopeless.

For every dead monster, two new ones came after. And Steve had no chance to get inside the plane.

"What now?" Bucky shouted through the com.

"Keep going", Steve roared back. At least the heroes had to try otherwise the whole US could be lost. The whole east coast was under threat, and if that was done, the creatures would certainly go further.

Steve raised the shield when a monster came running toward him with a kind of lance in his hand. Again, Steve waited until the creature was close before him, then he jumped to the side and made a deliberate slap on the monster's neck, which immediately dropped to the ground.

Bucky just didn’t seem to get tired next to him. The corpses of the dead beings were already piled up at his feet, and more and more were coming.

Clint, too, seemed to have regained some courage. Steve guessed that he didn’t want to die as a coward but as a hero.

Shortly he took a little break to turn around. Although the fight had been going on for ages, the soldiers of the United States army with their heavy weapons were only just beginning to arrive. Orders were shouted, men and women ran around frantically and built up as heavy guns as possible to lift hundreds of feet into the air.

Slowly they moved forward. Little tanks that they had somehow put on the huge plane did destroy the ship pretty well, but only a fraction of all the struck creatures eventually fell dead to the ground.

"I have to get inside of that ship, now!", Steve shouted to the others.

"It's going to be hard, Cap," Falcon replied through the com, "in front of the entrance is a whole horde."

Steve even smelled the monsters. The stinging smell of rotten eggs was stiff in the air, even though it was so restless. Steve briefly climbed on two stacked creatures and could see over all the monsters to the entrance of the building. More and more monsters were streaming out of the grey huge door, all screaming like crazy.

 "The things work exactly like a brain," Wanda told them, who had apparently captured the combat tactics of the monsters. "They all use the same movement sections."

Steve looked around. Yes, it was true. Each of the creatures raised his left leg slightly longer than the right, which looked like they were limping. Conversely, the right arm moved forward longer than the left. It looked like they were all the same person.

"But if that's so," Scott spoke Steve’s idea out loud, "then all we have to do is kill the brain, right?"

"And where exactly is this brain supposed to be?" asked Clint. "The thing that keeps the ship going is not likely to be it, is it?"

"No," Wanda answered. "It has to be one of those beings. Probably a bit bigger than the rest. Do you see that?"

"No, not spotted yet," said Falcon.

Steve also looked around. No, all beings looked similar. Not a single one stood out.

The battlefield looked awful. Everywhere laid dead creatures, and now dead or injured soldiers, too, who had intervened in the fight. Debris from the flying ship laid everywhere.

Desperately, Steve looked around and paused in shock.

An aeroplane, a smaller one, flew towards the ship at a breath-taking speed. It barely began to slow as it was above the battlefield and flew directly into their direction. "Guys?" Steve asked slowly, "What's that?"

A crack in the line made him think he had lost the connection. Frantically, Steve looked around. Another plane, another threat? Even if it was much smaller, it could very well cause great harm.

Steve put himself in an attack position and put his hand over his ear. "Are you still with me?" He asked the others to find out why his earpiece had made such noises.

Clint answered first. "Yes. What's that?" with his bow he aimed at the fast plane.

Steve's eyes narrowed. Wasn’t that one of Tony's old planes?

Excited, he dropped his arm slightly. "Don’t shoot," he called to Clint. "We'll see what it is!"

At that moment, the plane landed on the deck, right on top of several creatures, slipped over the long platform and came dangerously close to Steve. Quickly he jumped several steps to the side, but that was not necessary. The small plane slowed down, shortly after it had overturned several of the creatures so that behind him was a swathe which was directly filled up with new monsters.

"That," a female voice told them via intercom, "is the reinforcement."

When the door opened, Natasha, Vision and even Rhodey came out running off the plane.

Steve stood with his mouth open. The others had come? A wave of relief flooded him.

"Natasha," Clint asked stunned, ignoring the battlefield, only looking at his best friend.

"Yeah, it’s me", came her answer through the earpieces.

They had actually come to help them.

"You came," Scott called unnecessarily through the microphone.

"Indeed. Our help could not be ruled out. After hearing about the attack, we left almost instantly to help you", Vision’s voice sounded clear and calm.

"Nice to see you again," Natasha greeted, raising Steve's real shield and throwing it at him. Then she turned to the fighting.

Steve's gaze was still on the new plane. He waited for another person to come out. But nobody did. His eyes searched the sky, he looked around the battlefield. Something in him broke when he realized that Tony Stark hadn’t come.

"And Tony?" He asked anyway. He wanted to hear what had happened. Was Tony ill? Injured? Dead? Because of him?

"Rhodey, where is Tony?", he asked with a slight panic in his voice.

"He’s... he’s in his lab. As always. He didn’t feel ready to fight. He says he's going to hinder us", Rhodey said cautiously, but with a clearly audible reproach in his voice.

Horrified, Steve shook his head. No, that wasn’t Tony. He would never lock himself up instead of helping others.

How could that happen? Was it his fault that the once so joyous, often somewhat arrogant Tony Stark was now talking bad of himself?

The thing with Bucky had happened almost three months ago. Had it hit him that hard? Steve had expected that Tony was not so good at talking to him, but that he was retiring himself?

Steve shook his head with a bad feeling. He had to think about the fight now. Not about Tony. _It will be okay_ , he thought to himself.

"We have to get inside the ship. Through one of the entrances there", he began, trying to put aside every thought of his friend.

"Also", Clint added, "we have to find a bigger thing. The brain. If we kill it, we can kill everyone with it."

"Well then", Natasha ran off while talking, "then let's find the brain."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I figured I'd be able to post two times a week. I hope it stays this way, but I certainly think so.  
> So, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks by the way for the kudos! That's super cool.
> 
> I wish you a nice day!


	4. Chapter 4

For the next ten minutes, Steve hit monsters as much as he could. He and the others, too, had gained new courage and strength through the arrival of Natasha, Rhodes and Vision.

Natasha stood back to back with Clint and hit the monsters incredibly precisely on the neck. Many went down in front of her, and if that was not the case for a while, Clint was often able to rescue her. It looked as if they had fought like this forever, and not found each other again only a few minutes ago, after months of sparing talk, if at all.

Vision flew around looking for the brain and defeating the monsters whenever he could.

Rhodey’s weapon variety caused several creatures to perish in front of him, but consequently more and more monsters came out again and made their way to the crowded deck.

And so it went on.

Steve and the others fought and fought, but more monsters came, until-

"There," came Rhodey's voice from the coms. "A big thing! It walks out of the ship. That might be the brain!"

Steve could see it. The creature stretched several yards high. An armor that seemed to be impenetrable even from a distance, and a particularly large head were the things that stood out first.

Rhodey raced through the air at the creature. But as he was about to fire his weapons, the monster slowly raised his hand. Rhodey aimed and shot with various weapons.

One could already hear his cry of joy through the coms, but then came the explosion.

With a loud noise everything he shot bounced off the creature and something was even thrown back in all directions. Some of the monsters fell to the ground, but Rhodey's cheer also shifted to a fearful one. He was thrown several feet through the air and fell hard on the ground.

"Ah," he started painfully. "This thing’s hard to defeat."

"Wait," sounded Visions voice through the earpiece. "We will attack from two sides at the same time. The creature is not very fast because of its mass. It should not be able to react quickly enough."

While Steve tried to fend off three little monsters at the same time, he could see a bit of how Vision and Rhodey were heading for the brain.

About twenty feet away from the creature, both made themselves ready to attack again and flew off at the same time.

A beam from Rhodey's hand and one from Visions head shot quickly at the brain, but when it was hit, it just yelled as if in pain, but didn’t go down.

The two attackers weren’t hurt, so they went directly into a next attack. Falcon, too, had attacked the brain and Clint shot one arrow after the other. With his huge hands, however, the monster struck out as if trying to fish the Avengers and the arrows from the air.

Steve could see Rhodey approaching the monster. Suddenly it made an extremely fast movement in its direction and knocked it out of the trajectory. Rhodes would have ended up in the air if Falcon had not flown behind him and caught him.

"He's unconscious," came the news of the flying who immediately tried to get the War Machine behind their own lines.

Steve swallowed. What now? They had to defeat the thing. With the time passing more and more monsters crawled out of somewhere in that ship. He had to get into the building.

"We have to kill it!" he called. "I’ve got to get into the ship quickly. We are getting dangerously close to the city!"

Vision picked up speed and flew toward the brain. But when he was only five yards away, he bounced off the air. He remained motionless.

"What the hell was that?" Bucky shouted, shooting wildly to protect himself from seven smaller monsters who attacked him.

Vision had recovered and flew up. Steve could see that he was in pain. "A kind of shield. It seems to be a force field, I cannot get any closer. It must be because of the stone."

Steve quickly threw his shield to relieve Bucky. One of the creatures instantly fell to the ground, but Steve didn’t care; he was thinking about how to somehow kill the brain.

A scream was heard through the coms. Falcon fell down hardly.

"My wings!" He shouted. "I can’t fly anymore! Crap."

The desperation came up in the captain as he turned a little. No one among them could fly anymore, no one was able to get to the brain anymore. He tried to figure out if he could throw his shield far and fast enough, but even for him it would be impossible to throw so far with enough force.

"Shit," slipped out of him.

Rhodey's voice sounded through the intercom, still weak, but at least he was conscious again. "I'm behind our lines and talking to the Army Commander. He wants us to direct all guns to the creature."

"What?" Steve exclaimed in disbelief. "All guns? That’s insane! The whole ship would explode and fall onto Tom's River. Thousands could die! We can’t do that!"

"They say we have no other option. We have to shoot it," Rhodey replied. Steve shook his head. You couldn’t do that! How could one justify for such a mass of deaths? In his mind, he went through all the scenarios they could try.

"We're going to lose all our lives!" Bucky pronounced his thoughts, waving his arms wildly. “And the civilians down there, too!”

"Not if you shoot the creature in the air."

 

Steve froze. He knew that voice. He knew it. But not so indifferent, not so tired.

"Tony?" he asked stunned and forgot to fight.

"Captain," Iron Man landed next to Steve. The mechanic's apathetic voice hurt him, but he was too speechless to answer.

"You’ll shoot as soon as I'm gone with it a few hundred yards. All guns on me and the thing. All the monsters will die and you can get to the cockpit. You’ll take control quickly and land it safely. No one in Tom's River, and certainly no one in Philadelphia will die."

"Tony, you ..." Steve started slowly. His stomach felt like he was about to vomit. "You’d die!"

"Yeah, and?" asked the tired, resigned voice of the billionaire again. "Would you mind so much?"

"Tony!" he heard Rhodey's panicky voice in his ear, but the mechanic didn’t seem to react.

Steve was unable to move, but at that very moment Tony was already flying high and headed straight for the creature. It was still busy with arrows from Clint, so it didn’t notice the machine’s arrival.

Tony flew toward the creature at high speed and grabbed it with a loud crash. The repulsors ran harder as Tony grabbed the heavy creature and flew it up into the air. It roared loudly, but even louder were the screams of the other creatures and the army commands.

Steve was still petrified, but by then Tony was ten, then fifty, then a hundred yards in the air.

And the soldiers fired with all the weapons they had.

 

Steve could not move. He thought he heard Rhodey screaming wildly but was not sure. Tony was gone. He was dead. And the last thing he had ever heard of him was the question of whether he minded his death.

Yeah, of course he did! _Fuck_.

Steve slowly dropped to his knees. He didn’t even hear sounds around him, blinding everything.

Tony had been one of his closest friends for so long. He couldn’t be dead, that wouldn’t work. He coughed, and his lungs cramped.

Tony had died because of him. He himself was responsible for the mechanic's decision, he thought. He shouldn’t have left him alone, they would have found a solution.

Steve felt nothing. Not the sharp edge of the stone he was sitting on, he heard nothing of the fight, only marginally watching as Clint sprinted towards him, warding off the creatures' attacks.

Tony was dead. Tony Stark had sacrificed himself to save them. Steve's eyes blurred and again he felt unable to move.

Just when Bucky pulled him up by the arm, his senses slowly returned. The noises had stopped. Clint and Natasha hugged each other and looked up at the sky. Vision, Falcon, and Scott stared at the burning point in the air, which continued to spread in all directions and then to Steve.

All monsters laid dead on the ground. Some were still twitching, but the battle was over.

Bucky gently took him in his arms.

"Steve, you have to go, turn off the center. Otherwise there could be more aliens and the fight would start again. Come on, that's your job."

Steve had forgotten that he had another job. But he nodded. Slowly, he started toward the door, certain that anyone who stood there was staring at him or at the burning point in the air right now.

He was not allowed to show any weakness now, even if he wanted. His hands were shaking.

He would now go to the control room, turn off the ship's functions and hopefully prevent the now-dead brain from rebuilding and calling new ships and then he would be looking for Tony.

Maybe soldiers had already been sent out to look for him.

Yeah, maybe he was not dead yet. The suit hold up a lot, maybe Tony was still alive and waiting like he did back in New York, just waiting for someone to shout loudly beside him.

He had to live, Steve told himself.

Slowly he reached one of the big, gray doors and climbed over corpses that covered the floor.

The interior of the building was only gray. The walls, the floor, the ceiling. All in the same shade of gray. Many doors and corridors led to the various areas of the ship. But somehow, Steve knew where he needed to go. His eyes were fixed on the ground in front of him, his thoughts still hanging outside. The burning stain in the sky caused by Tony's sacrifice. Even though he did not want to admit it, his eyes started to burn and filled with tears. Angrily, he wiped them away. He shouted loudly and slammed his hand against the steel wall to his left. The pain shot through him when he hit something sharp, but he didn’t really notice it. His breathing quickened and it became harder again, but Steve wandered along the corridors. With every step he took, he was more sure to have made mistakes. What if he had called Tony? What if he just signed the accords? What if he had run to the brain himself, maybe he could have killed it without anyone dying.

Steve opened a door that looked suspiciously important. A dead creature laid in front of it, which perhaps had kept watch. When he entered the room, he looked at countless electrical devices, all of them blinking and beeping. Tony would feel comfortable in here, he thought, feeling a stab in his chest.

 

"Cap, the cockpit is empty," Clint said over the coms. "There has to be a place that transfers control of the ship back to the pilots."

In the middle of the room stood a huge wheel, which probably switched off the power to something important. "Got it," Steve murmured, running to the metal wheel. Here, too, some guards had been posted, but they were also dead on the ground. The diameter of the wheel was approximately six feet, but Steve managed to turn it. The beginning was the hardest. He tensed his muscles and just managed to get the wheel to move. After that it was easier.

He turned until it stopped. It certainly took a minute, then suddenly all the lamps stopped glowing.

"Ok, I'm in control," Clint said softly.

Steve sat down exhausted and put his head in his hands.

They had done it, the beings were defeated.

But so was Tony.


	5. Chapter 5

Steve's hand tapped nervously on the couch and his leg wobbled. Bucky was sitting next to him, but Steve didn’t really care. He looked at the big screen in front of him, on which a woman said something he barely noticed.

"The Avengers have all been released, said the president at a news conference a few minutes ago. Whether the Avengers are now independent of the United Nations remains unclear," the young woman spoke seriously into the microphone. “After what had happened in Toms River, we all should be happy to have such a protective measure, so he said. After the air battle at about three in the evening and after, so say witnesses, Tony Stark sacrificed himself to end the danger, the cleanup and searching work continues. Inhabitants are told to report if they either know something about the billionaire or observe unusual activities."

Pictures of Tony were shown in the background, then shots of the flying ship. Shots filmed from a helicopter were cut in to reveal the extent of the battle.

Now they all sat in the large living room of the Avenger headquarters and looked at the screen. Nothing was heard except the newsreader. Rhodey groaned occasionally as if trying to hold back his emotions, and Clint had grabbed Natasha's arm to make sure they were allowed to be here.

They were a team again. The flight back had been quiet and Steve had noticed the looks of Rhodey on himself and Vision had observed the newcomers thoroughly, but nothing else had happened. Without big words, they all went to the living room.

When Steve let his eyes wander, they got stuck at Rhodey. The man stared completely disoriented, now motionless.

Steve could only guess how the man felt right now when his best friend ignored him and then sacrificed himself. He swallowed and turned his head away, to the ground beneath his feet. He clenched his jaw as hold his hands tight so they were already becoming white.

Rhodey should hate him. He should hate _himself_. Wasn’t it somehow his fault? It all started with the Sokovia agreement that had to be signed. He acted the way he thought was best, he acted the right way, and the still thought so. But could he have allowed the team to split? He put his head in his hands.

The dispute has developed, then the splitting of the Avengers, the fight and finally, today, the others came back. And Tony? He left.

Steve got up jerkily. He heard Bucky turn his head and Vision follow his movements, but Steve didn’t go far.

He could not sit here resting. He was drained, very tired and felt terribly guilty. If he still had the strength, he would go off and help the many teams that searched for Tony. Somehow. But the only orders they got from Fury, the military, and the government yet told them to stay at the headquarters. The situation with Stark was under control. They must wait.

Steve stood by the big window and stared in the meadow, with a lot of teams of agents rushing around.

Suddenly the doors of the elevator opened to the large room, and Steve turned around abruptly. Grimly, Fury, Hill, and another agent entered the room, whom Steve had seen before about twice. Without advocating, Fury projected a map over the glass table. Steve saw that Rhodey raised his head expectantly and Vision studied the map closely. Maria Hill looked tense and the other agent wrote something on his cell phone.

"All of Stark's equipment is destroyed," Fury began, not even remotely remembering to approach the subject slowly. Steve liked it that way. "Neither SHIELD nor FRIDAY can detect or locate signals."

A list of data was projected into the air, which probably recorded exactly these experiments. Natasha looked at them closely, but Rhodey shook his head. "He is _not_ dead," he countered with a heavy undertone.

Fury looked at him quietly for a moment, then shook his head. "We can’t go for that yet. Search teams from SHIELD and the government are strategically searching all sorts of places from there," Fury explained, pointing to the hologram that was now showing the trails of the search teams.

Fury's shoulders slumped down and he sighed briefly, almost imperceptibly. "Since it is unclear how you can carry out missions independently of superordinate commands, the government says you should stay here. The Avengers are not allowed to participate in the search for Stark," he said. Steve's eyes widened.

"We should not be allowed to help? I thought that was just a temporary decision?"

As he talked he could see Rhodey stiffen. The other Avengers looked shocked, too. Fury raised his shoulders again and stared at Steve with his jaw compressed.

"It’s a decision by the government, which probably serves for security. You can be glad you're fucking here, Rogers. The situation was much tenser a few hours ago."

"A few hours ago, there was no alien ship that attacked the East Coast. We have to look for Tony, the government can’t forbid that!" Steve exclaimed, taking a step closer to Fury.

The man exhaled angrily. Steve had never seen him so tense before. "The government can, and you will stick to it. The last time you thought your idea was more impressive than the government's, you pulled the Avengers apart. And as a result, we're looking for Stark, so stay away from your fucking ideas," Fury replied, quieter but also more threatening at the same time.

Steve had to use all his strength not to back down. He had never seen Fury so uncontrolled about Tony. He swallowed.

"I still believe that signing the agreement would be wrong. I was free to decide, and I did," he replied, looking down into Fury's eye.

Rhodey got up. "Even if I still want to punch Steve in the face because of his decision, he's right." He stood next to Steve but didn’t look at him. "We have to search for Tony. He needs every help he can get right now."

"Any help he can get means that he can go to a place where Avengers actually live when he comes back. If you go looking for him, SHIELD and the government might have to take steps to secure the states. I'd damn you imprisoned again." Fury looked at Scott, then glanced at Clint, Sam, Wanda, Bucky, and finally Steve. "It was hard enough to save Stark from his “I-just-break-all-gear" action. We can’t get you all out of captivity again. For Tony's sake; don’t you fucking go."

Steve took a deep breath and Rhodey turned slightly as Maria Hill put a hand on Fury's shoulder and said something quietly into his ear. Fury nodded and put his hands in his side.

"The biggest problem we’ve got right now is that we don’t know who or what we are dealing with. The creatures obviously didn’t come from Earth. SHIELD agents are already trying to figure out what kind of aliens they are," he said, almost resignedly just looking at Natasha. "The fact is that it interacted with the mind stone. In recent months, we have been able to locate large amounts of energy all over the world more often, which then disappeared almost immediately. Agent Romanoff has heard of it." He pointed to her and Natasha nodded briefly and then spoke for herself.

"The power didn’t show an accurate system when and where it appeared. That's why we couldn’t identify any causes yet. It was detected mainly by power outages. We can’t even say with certainty whether all power failures were caused by the same thing or not. We have no clues. The only thing we knew was that something was going on."

"And now we can connect those power issues with the attack from today," Hill finished, nodding to Natasha. "Smaller and larger power failures have been reported on various points in New Jersey and New York. We can only guess, but it seems likely that the attack is related to the failures."

Fury nodded in agreement. "So it might have been a long-term planned attack. We have to act like more will follow."

Steve turned his head so that he looked back at Fury. The man looked more tired than he did three months ago, and his voice was not as powerful as usual. Nevertheless, he kept his back straight, obviously trying to radiate strength and authority.

Steve wondered if another attack would involve another victim, and a shiver ran down his spine.

Only after a short break, the third agent spoke up. He had an unusually high and soft voice for his height and stature. "Stark is now a matter for the government and SHIELD. Residents and professional teams will search every square feet. The time remaining before the next attack must be used by excessive training to prepare us. Not only the United Nations and the inhabitants of any place on this planet rely on your commitment; even Stark does, for when he returns. He will want to find a working and solid attack plan. Your job will be to train together, as a team, as the Avengers, and be ready when you need it to be." He stood still for a moment. "You shouldn’t spend your time looking for Stark, but for team building and strengthening. With training and investigations.”

Rhodey snorted. "How should we strengthen the team when the most important part is missing?"

“Stark isn’t the leader," Fury answered shortly, looking at Steve. The soldier imagined seeing something like sadness in the eye. "And we all have to deal with losses."

He let out a breath and pointed to Steve. "He’s the one who held the Avengers together before the deal. If Stark is found - good. If not, then you have to build up all the missing power."

Steve stared in horror at Fury, who turned on the spot and walked to the elevator. Hill and the other agent didn’t move. The others had their eyes fixed on Fury, his back to them before the doors closed.

For a moment it was very quiet. Then Rhodey faced Steve. "You're not the one holding the Avengers together. You're the one that made us sit here without Tony."

Steve didn’t move, but he knew it was true. Rhodey glared at him angrily, as if trying to get something out of Steve. The soldier didn’t know what he would have to do to prove he didn’t want to hurt anymore. It was clear that Rhodey did not believe he would care for Tony, but he wanted to prove him wrong. Nevertheless, he said nothing.

Maria Hill took a step forward. "Once we have reasonable information, you will get them right away. You all stay here, training, searching for information if possible, but not leaving the grounds until further clarification has been received from the United Nations. You have to fight the danger when it comes back. Tony will be taken care of." Her voice sounded resigned.

"And not only do you have to train," added the agent, whose name Steve still didn’t know, "but also become the team you once were. Differences must be discussed, but under no circumstances may there be new divisions. The world needs the Avengers the most now."

His eyes fell on Rhodey and Steve, and after a moment the smaller one turned away, staring at the agent. The agent wiped his hair from his forehead.

"Stark will be sought and you have to devote to your own tasks."

"Please take your role in world politics seriously," Hill concluded, closing the hologram. She nodded to Natasha and Clint before looking again at Steve and Rhodey. "For Tony's sake."

Then the two agents also turned around and got into the elevator, which was already up again.

Steve stared at the floor in front of him and for a moment just heard the silence. He was frustrated. It was true. The danger was real. It could come at any time to another attack. And the agent was probably right.

He clenched his hands into fists. They had to become a team; finding Tony was only a minor matter.

 _Nonsense_ , he thought, looking at the others who must have thought the same. Nobody spoke. It was obvious to everyone that they were not allowed to search, that they had to stay here. Furthermore, Steve did not move an inch and the others seemed lost in their own thoughts.

Too much had happened. The fight in Germany, the prison, the break. The fight against the aliens. Tony.

Reunion.

 

The danger, the serious danger was clearly visible and everyone in the room knew it. No one moved for several minutes, then suddenly Steve heard someone straighten up. He looked up.

"You wanted to show me how to shoot with your bow," Bucky reminded Clint. He took the other one's arm. "Lang, do you want to come along? You also wanted to learn it, didn't you? Steve?" he asked.

The soldier looked at his friend in surprise. Archery?

"I'll come too," Natasha said and stood up abruptly.

"This won’t be a fun class trip to go wild, alright?" Clint said seriously. "This is about hard training."

"Sir, yes sir," Bucky replied, standing still, as if in the military.

Steve smiled slightly. That was the team he knew. When someone made the start, a darn situation was relaxed.

It used to be Tony who started.

Steve swallowed, and he still didn’t answer, just saw Wanda straighten up and say something to Vision. He nodded.

But then Bucky moved into his field of vision and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come with me," he demanded, pushing him forward. Steve let himself be carried away. It took barely twenty minutes for all the Avengers to stand on the lawn and get archery explained.

Only Tony was missing.


	6. Chapter 6

_It hurts_ , Tony thought.

When he opened his eyes, the light was burning. He immediately closed them again. He frowned and tried again. It worked.

 _Beige. And blue_.

That was the first thing he saw.

It took him a few seconds before he realized that this was probably sandstone and there, on the edge of his field of vision, the sky. His breathing rattled and hurt and sweat ran into his eyes.

Groaning, he tried to sit up and look around, but his body didn’t obey him. He just tasted the blood that flowed slowly from somewhere into his mouth. The metallic taste made him choke.

He pressed his lips together and tried once more to turn his head, but a stinging pain ran through his whole body. He blew air from his nostrils and tried to remember what had happened. But the only thing that was really safe in his head was the pain that went through him. He tried to move his limbs and groaned.

At least he could feel it all, he thought grimly as the pain moved from his toe into his calf. He tried to move his aching legs, but they obeyed neither. He felt panic when he couldn’t move, and his breathing went even faster. The stinging pain ran through his chest again and a peal of pain left his mouth.

He stopped trying to move his legs and instead tried to focus his eyes on what he could see, but next to the beige sandstone and the blue sky, he only saw yellow and white. Like a desert, these colors stretched across the ground as far as he could see. He thought he heard water rushing, but his brain had to play a joke on him because now everything went black again.

 

 

When Steve opened his eyes in the middle of the night, he couldn’t remember his dream. Breathing heavily, he sat down on the edge of his bed, in the room that still looked the same as it used to. He ran his hand over his sweaty face, trying to calm himself.

Images of his shield striking something Steve couldn’t see came over him. A scream and the pain that the creature that was hit by his shield must have felt.

He shuddered and clawed his hands into the bed.

For a few minutes, he just sat there, staring at his bare toes over the white carpet and listening to his somehow slowing breathing. Then he looked at the clock. 3:47 am, it indicated.

"Friday?" He asked quietly, though he knew the AI would always be awake. "Is there something new from Tony?"

"I'm sorry, not even traces have been found so far", admitted the AI and sounded a bit disappointed.

Steve had expected it. He closed his eyes and laid his head on his hands and exhaled loudly. "They aren’t looking right!", he finally said and pressed his hands on his eyes.

He stared into the darkness. His breathing quickened as he suddenly remembered being quarantined in a dark room as a child when he was ill. He had vomited several times during the night and finally woke up to a nightmare, shouting, but his mother hadn’t heard him. He hadn’t found the strength to get up and search for her, so he just sat there in the cold, dark room in Brooklyn, crying.

His mother had heard him far too late and came to him, even reassured him, but Steve could only remember the fear and pain of his illness.

He swallowed and stood up. He had to do something. Nobody should ever feel something like him back then. _Fuck the commandments, fuck staying here,_ he thought and was not even appalled by himself about his way of speaking.

Quietly he padded through the dark room into the bathroom. It barely took him five minutes to get ready and put on his suit.

He was an Avenger, and he could not afford to let Tony down again. What he was up to was right.

 _You thought so before_ , a voice in his head said very quietly, but he shook his head and ignored it. Tony needed him.

"Friday, start a high-speed plane. Now."

"It's already there," the AI replied directly and Steve smiled. Even the computer, the being without human feelings, sounded relieved that Steve wanted to search for Tony. It _was_ right.

Without further thought, Steve grabbed his shield and softly opened his door to the hallway. Someone was playing music somewhere, but the rest of the rooms seemed to be quiet. Slowly, so slowly that he thought he must win a prize for his patience, he padded up the stairs. He didn’t want to make any noise, he was not _allowed_ to make any noise.

He was sure the others wanted to help, too, but he had to do it alone. Not only because he owed it to Tony also because the others should not act illegally. If only he went, the others could stay, only he would have to reckon with the consequences. They were not allowed to hear about it.

It felt like an eternity before Steve finally reached the big door to the hall with all the planes. The door had already been pushed open and the soldier remained disturbed. Slowly he went to the door and noticed that a small bag with a note was hanging in front of it.

'Take something to eat with you, if you go searching - NF', was written on it with a spangled handwriting and finally, Steve could smell the buns. For a moment he just stared at the bag, then smiled slightly. With his hand, he grabbed a bun from the bag and pushed the door open.

Immediately he saw the plane Friday had started. The little light on the floor was enough for his irritable senses to see, and the adrenaline continued to grow with every step he took. The plane was at the farthest end of the hall, and when Steve got there, he realized that the plane Friday had started was one of Tony's favorite ones.

Steve remembered that the mechanic had told him in an eternally long lecture what the whole plane could do and how he had flown with it for the first time. Tony's eyes had blazed as he talked about the whole technique, even though he knew that Steve probably didn’t understand.

He shook the thought of the man aside and climbed into the plane. It took less than five minutes and Steve was in the air and the Avengers' headquarters behind him.

 

By the time he left New York and soon after Toms River was faintly visible, Steve breathed nervously. The small town with the hundred thousand inhabitants shone only slightly in comparison to the metropolis behind him.

It might not have been very smart to fly in the middle of the night, Steve had noticed, but since it was summer, the sun would have to start illuminating the area soon.

"What's that?" Steve asked the artificial intelligence that was also installed on the plane. He nodded toward a very long island that built up like a wall off the coast.

"That’s the Shore Road. It extends over several miles. There is a beach and small forests. There are several sandstone formations, as well as some parking spaces. But everything is empty currently."

Steve looked impressed at the dark, long expanse far ahead of him that was barely visible in the night. He had to squint his eyes to see it by the sea.

"Is somebody searching there?"

It was quiet for a moment. Then the AI responded with a "No, as far as I know, they are searching in the vicinity of the fighting area, so further north." Steve nodded and considered briefly.

"Would it be possible for an object that has been many hundred yards in the air to fly there?"

"Certainly, it's not much more unlikely to that it would fall down further north."

"Then please show me a place where I can land safely and undetected."

"Not much further south. There is a clearing, barely visible from above, but big enough for the plane. That's not far from Mr. Rhode's landing position."

"Rhodeys?" He exclaimed. "What is he doing here?"

For a second the woman's voice didn’t answer. "He's also looking for my Boss. I thought you knew?"

Steve shook his head. Obviously he was not the only one Tony was important enough to, to not follow the director's instructions. "Can you contact him?"

"Unfortunately, I lost contact just over an hour ago, he left the plane without technology, I cannot contact him."

Angrily, Steve watched as the autopilot steered the landing position.

He was not sure if it would be wise to search together, but if Rhodey was here, they should at least talk so they wouldn’t search the same places twice, even if the man might not want to see him. Steve could only hope that he would find him.

When the soldier finally got off the plane, the sun in the east just pushed over the horizon.

 

It took several minutes before he was halfway oriented.

The long island was not wide, but it took several minutes to fight its way out of the dense forest and before he could see the beach. Steve ran a few meters over the fine sand, which looked completely deserted. He could see hundreds of yards to the left and right and saw nothing except the sand and behind him the forest that separated him from the road. The waves beat evenly and almost reassuringly against the beach and for a brief moment Steve just listened.

Then he turned back and ran into the forest. On the beach he would have seen Tony, he would first search in the forest. Cool air hit him directly, as the shadow fell over him. The previous day's storm was like a distant fairytale story. It was very quiet in the forest.

Steve looked around and decided to head south. He had his shield on his back and he watched attentively.

 

It was less than an hour before he saw a reddish glow on the ground behind a tree.

Shocked, Steve stopped and breathed loudly. He stared nervously at the tree and squinted, but then he suddenly ran. A branch scratched sharply at his upper arm, but he didn’t care, he kept running.

"Tony!" He shouted, hoping the other one would hear him. As Steve looked over the fallen tree, a fox looked at him and fled straight through the undergrowth.

Steve stopped in frustration and put his hands on his knees. "Fuck!" He shouted and shot a branch that laid on the ground with his foot.

"Damn it," he cursed, looking around. Tony had to be here, he had to find him. _Why did he fly away with the alien creature? There must have been other options._

A bush rustled loudly behind him and Steve turned around attentively. Soldiers shouldn’t be here yet and animals barely made those noises. "Rhodes?" He called questioningly and waited.

The rustling stopped short, then Tony's friend broke out of a shrubbery. "Steve?" He asked in surprise, dropping a gun. "What are you doing here?"

Steve stared quietly at Rhodey. The other man wore training clothes and a first aid kit as a backpack. He was sweaty and seemed to be tired.

"Am looking for Tony. Just like you. "

Rhodey shook his head. "Why you?"

Steve couldn’t answer, but stared silently at the other man. He didn’t know why all his words were missing. Maybe he felt sorry for Rhodes. Maybe he had hoped the next person he met would be Tony.

"Tony had needed you all the last fucking three months, and now that he's maybe fucking dead, you start worrying about him?" Rhodey had become louder and ran toward Steve. The weapon in his hand swung menacingly in the direction of the soldier, but when the smaller came close, Steve realized his eyes were red.

"I've been caring all the time," Steve answered truthfully. Just a couple of hours after freezing Bucky, his thoughts had wandered back to his team and Tony.

"Then why did you write that damn letter to him," Rhodey answered, his voice breaking in the end. "Do you have any idea how bad he was?"

Steve raised his hands as Rhodey's gun was aimed directly at him. He swallowed. "I'm afraid I completely underestimated it."

Rhodey nodded and breathed in loud. His chest went fast and Steve could see that the man was struggling to stay in control. "You could have saved him, but no! Captain America wanted to play hide and seek!" he exclaimed.

Steve stared at him calmly. In a low voice, he asked, "Who do you want to shoot with that gun," and pointed to the pistol, which was still aimed to his chest.

Rhodey waited to answer for a moment. "People who want to kidnap Tony. People who want to stop me from looking for Tony. People who got Tony into the situation."

The look he gave Steve was tired and the soldier cautiously stepped one step at the other. "You don’t have to believe me, but I just want the best for Tony. I never intended to hurt him. "

"Your actions have spoken quite differently. A cell phone, Rogers? A cell phone?" he shouted and Steve heard his desperation.

He nodded. "I've made mistakes, big mistakes," he began softly, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. "We’ve all made mistakes. But the biggest mistake would be to argue now. We have to look for Tony, together." Steve exhaled slowly as Rhodey finally let the gun down. He seemed to calm down.

"A few miles further south, sandstone formations begin to cover a wide area on the beach. You are going there to look for Tony and I stay here in the woods and look after him. That's how we can search more effectively. "

Rhodey stared at him and said nothing.

"We'll meet again here at sunset. If you have Tony, you're going to fly right away. So I know tonight at the latest that we have him back. Alright?"

Rhodey nodded. "I stay here in the woods," he finally said. "I've been here for a while, I've searched more. So we don’t search twice. Go to the beach. I'll see you tonight."

Steve nodded and smiled slightly at Rhodey.

"And Rogers," the colonel added, "don’t think I forgive you your last three months so fast."

Steve nodded again and swallowed. "I'll see you tonight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Because I've got holidays right now and I'm not going to be at home, I won't be able to update the next ten days. So the next chapter will get out at the second or third of November.  
> Thanks for the Kudos and the comments!


	7. Chapter 7

The next time he woke up, Tony felt the throbbing pain in his stomach, his arms, feet and head. He smelled the sweat that ran down his body.

But when he opened his eyes he could see more than the last time. The sandstone above him seemed to be a kind of cave he had somehow fallen into, the sky at the edge of his field of vision was now covered with a few clouds. And he actually lay on the sand. In the distance, he heard the ocean. Still, each breath hurt and the little wind that made it into the cave had swirled sand into his mouth. He coughed and cramped.

He closed his eyes for a moment, only to lift his head slightly and - _shit, it hurts_ \- to be able to look at his legs.

On them was a large weight that restricted all movement and only at second glance, he could see that they were spilt by sand and debris.

"Fuck," he mumbled, regretting it right away. His throat hurt.

It felt like the leg splint didn’t fall off as hoped but got spilt. Something stuck in his calves and for a brief moment, Tony was even glad that he could not move his legs because that would have made everything worse. He wrinkled his brow and tried to see his surroundings better. His upper body was exposed to the sun unrestrained, which was in the exact position to shine into the cave. In some places, he already felt sunburn. Whether he was sweating because of the pain or the heat, he couldn’t say. He groaned briefly. His suit had apparently dropped off in the air, which had not gone as planned either. All over the area were cables and metal plates distributed.

 _Why didn’t the ship attack two fucking hours later? The suit would have been ready by then_ , he thought bitterly and stiffened briefly as his stomach rebelled and he had to choke, causing a sharp pain to pass through his entire body.

His fingers were shaking and he could not control the movement, and again he had to cough. He tensed and saw only black for a moment, but the coughing didn’t stop. Some blood spurted out of his mouth and spread over his glowing face.

"Fuck," he mumbled again when his cough had calmed down a little.

Carefully and with watery eyes, he tried to turn his head. It worked to the left, but when he turned the right side the stinging pain passed through him again. He put his head back on the sand and rested. 

 _A bit of heat and sand can’t be so bad_ , he finally told himself and straightened his head again.

He saw black spots again and coughed another time, but laxer this time. He had to do something, the next time he woke up here was probably more unpleasant, he thought. _Or utopian._

Slowly he tried to lift his trembling hands. His right arm did not obey, and a stabbing pain dragged from the heel of his hand to his shoulder. Sharply, he breathed in and squinted on the arm, which was littered by wounds. He swallowed when he saw the bones must have been broken and turned his head away as fast as he could.

 _Then just the left one_ , he thought dryly, trying to remember if any person before him had to try to get out of a cave with just one arm. _Aron Ralston,_ he thought, but that didn’t calm him down. He cursed his good memory for remembering the mountaineer who cut his own arm off in order to get out of the cave he has fallen into.

Tony quickly tried to redirect his thoughts and moved his left arm, which worked just fine. Slowly, to avoid unnecessary pain he lifted it. He reached out and tried to grab a small hollow in the sand, where some old parts of his destroyed suit had accumulated.

When his hand touched the sun-heated metal, he winced but did not let go. He looked at the piece with his jaw clenched. With only one arm, he couldn’t build anything properly, no devices to escape or call for help. His brain worked. He stared at the piece of metal in his hand, hoping he'd come up with an idea of how to make something out of it that would get him help. His feverish and painfully slow brain needed several minutes before a solution could be found. Tony was sure the only way to get out of this situation alive was to get help. He swallowed and hoped he would not lose his chances with his idea.

Carefully, he raised his arm and threw the part away, out of the cave. It did not fly far, and when Tony reached for the next part, he changed his throwing position as best he could.

Again he hurled the piece out of the cave, and so he did with all the parts he was able to reach. It took time, but when he finished throwing all the cables and components he was able to get out of the cave, he knew that people walking or flying outside could make out someone was nearby. If they looked closely enough.

Tony could only hope that people were searching in his area. If he remembered it correctly, the nearest beach at Toms River was not on the mainland, but rather on a long island a few miles away.

In a sad attempt to attract attention, Tony tried to scream, but the cries for help were little more than a painful scab. He closed his eyes as the pain rushed through his whole chest again. He was thirsty, very thirsty. His arm and head began to hurt again; every breath hurt, he wanted to get away from here. He had known what would happen if he flew away with the alien, yes. And he wouldn’t have had a problem if that would have been his end. But now that he was alive, he wanted to continue to be so.

 _I’ve survived a cave before, I’ve got no problem doing it again_ , he tried to think, but his aching body spoke quite different volumes.

Tony closed his eyes and groaned. He wanted to get away from this cave, to his workshop. He didn’t want to feel that pain, which seemed to get worse with every passing minute. He hoped that someone might notice him and screamed again. Tony was breathing hard. Every time he lifted his chest, something stuck in his lungs, that's how it felt.

When Tony tried to turn his head in the other direction, he was overcome with such a pain that he went black again. He barely heard his own cry of pain, so quickly had unconsciousness overcome him again.

 

 

 

Bucky stared uneasily at the clock on the wall of the living room. "Has anyone seen something of Steve today?" he finally asked what had bothered him since the early morning.

"I thought he was jogging with you?" Clint asked, reading a report.

Bucky shook his head. "He wanted to but didn’t come this morning. I let him sleep because I thought he might need it."

The others started to listen. "Even Rhodes is not present," Vision stated and Natasha nodded affirmatively.

"Maybe they discuss their issues?" Scott Lang asked from the couch where he had just analysed video footage of the attack.

Wanda had sat up with folded arms and looked worried in the room. Sam also tapped his foot uneasily but shook his head. "I think Steve's mind is to occupied with Tony to discuss his problems," he explained. "Why didn’t you even look in his room?" he asked Bucky.

He raised his hands defensively. "Why should I just look in his room?"

"Why shouldn’t they discuss their issues?" Wanda interjected. Natasha looked at her for a moment, then spoke up. "Friday," she asked the AI, "are Rogers and Rhodes debating their problems?"

"Unfortunately I do not know it. I've lost contact with both," admitted Friday. "Both left at night to find my boss. I have been expressly ordered by Rhodes not to tell you that they went off. And the security settings of my boss mean that I have to follow instructions from him. He didn’t talk about answers," Friday added, sounding almost relieved to finally be able to tell.

Bucky started up in his seat. "Where are they?" he shouted. "Crap."

"We have to follow them," Sam stated immediately.

"We were forbidden!" Scott interrupted in confusion, looking at the map Friday had projected across the table. Two points were drawn on it, probably symbolizing two planes, Bucky realized.

"Teambuilding", countered Sam but and was already going for the door. "That's exactly what Fury wanted. Do something together, strengthen the team. We can’t be three people less."

"But if anyone hears about it, our freedom of action could be limited," contradicted Vision objectively.

Bucky waved. "Then we have to risk that. I know Steve. He'll look for Stark until he's sure he's alive ... or not." He was quiet for a moment. "But he wants answers. The team would break up without Stark _and_ Steve. We act in the goodwill of the government if we go looking for them."

"So we go, turn against the only rule we’ve got and help the Cap and Rhodes?" Wanda sounded a little anxious, but not necessarily averse to the thought.

Vision shook his head. "We go and help Tony."

 

It took scarcely ten minutes for the Avengers to gather the most necessary things and to go to the garage, as Tony had affectionately called it.

"Mr Rogers and Mr Rhodes both took high-speed planes," Friday said as Bucky pushed the big door open.

"In the bag here," Scott said, "are buns. Is the message from Fury?"

Sam ran to him and looked at the bag. "Looks like."

"Come on, we're not here for dinner," Bucky urged, who had already run into the hangar. Clint followed, frowning, looking around. "But we will have to take one of the big planes."

"Are there medical aids inside?"

Clint nodded quickly and headed for one of the big planes. "I’ll fly. Bucky, Natasha, you stay with me on the plane, the rest goes out as soon as we get to the island and search at the ground."

Bucky almost had to run to keep up. "Just fly fast, please."

Clint nodded determinedly. "Friday, can you show us again where Steve and Rhodey are?"

Without hesitation, Friday had given them the coordinates of their aircrafts, and just less than an hour later - the plane was nowhere near as fast as the other two's - they landed nearby them.

Clint and Natasha stayed with Bucky at the plane while the others swarmed out in groups of two or three to search the area.

Because the trees were so dense, Clint decided to fly over the beach and look for the people while the others were first searching in the forest.

 

Nobody noticed the plane, which was higher up in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My holidays are nearly over, so I'm back with a new chapter. Since this is so short I'll update another one tomorrow or Sunday. I hope you enjoy! Thanks for the kudos!


	8. Chapter 8

Tony could just feel the throb in his head.

The lack of water and the fever made him shiver in pain and wake up sweating.

He had not drunken anything for more than a day. _Or was it less?_ Although Tony could see the dim sky on the edge of his field of vision, he could not say whether he slept for a long or a short while. He woke up often. Mostly just for a few seconds, before his body took him back to the areas of feverish dreams. He almost always saw Steve, explosions, his parents, sometimes even the wormhole back in New York.

It was bad. And he always wished to wake up, and when that was the case, he wanted to fall asleep again because of the pain.

It had gotten worse. Each breath made him feel that several ribs had been broken or at least bruised, a wound over his eye had become inflamed and throbbed, just like his head, as he could not drink anything.

His lips were cracked, and the skin broke off due to sunburns. He was sweating and the smell was heavy in his nose.

Slowly he opened his eyes and groaned in the direction of the exit of the small cave.

"Please," he murmured through his mouth, which felt like a fur had grown on his tongue, "get me out of here." Like several times before, tears of pain ran from his eyes and now Tony had given up trying to wipe them away. No one saw him, why would he waste his energy?

People had to believe he was dead, they wouldn’t have to look for him, it would be a waste of time. They had to deal with an alien threat.

Hell, maybe there was a new attack and Tony was useless and couldn’t help. Then, of course, it would be clear why nobody was looking for him. There was either no time or no reason if he could not even save himself while so many pieces of his suit had lain beside him. He might not even be worth looking for. He had subsided, he was aware of that. Again a tear left his eye and his chest cramped as he sobbed.

He had been injured, why wasn’t he allowed to have a time off?

He should have done more in the last few months, he knew it now. He should have called Steve to make Captain America and his team return to the United States. He would have given them the new suits, then at least he would have fulfilled his tasks. Instead, he had just been hanging around, working, but not effectively.

It wasn’t a big surprise no one was looking for him. He sobbed again.

Not a single sharp piece of metal was in his reach, he had thrown everything away. Probably as a precaution, but he hated himself for it now. He would like nothing better than a quick, painless end. He did not want to die of thirst or blood loss. He hated the furry feeling in his mouth and he hated the headaches that got worse with every passing minute.

"Fuck," he cried.

Desperate, he lifted his left arm and tried to shovel the sand from his legs. But just as before, he could barely move his upper body and shovelling required forces he could no longer muster.

For the first time in a very long period of time, he was really hoping for strangers to save him.

He pressed his lips together to avoid another sob, staring out of the cave into the sky.

He caught a glimpse of an airplane that looked like one he had designed himself. Clearly, it had to be one of his aviators, after all, he had spent a lot of time and energy developing the best form of them, but it was gone so quickly that Tony was sure he had imagined it.

His brain played pranks on him. He also heard shouts for him, but that was certainly only in his dream, in which he fell again.

With one last murmured "help", Tony closed his eyes exhaustedly and was sure that he would never open them in this cave again.

 

 

Steve wiped the sweat from his forehead. For hours now he was walking across the beach, climbing over rocks, looking into every little cave Tony could be in. He had nothing to drink with him and the sun shone down mercilessly on him. He also couldn’t get in touch with Friday to find out anything about the area; he had no equipment for that. The state of the sun told him that it was already noon. Exhaustedly, Steve dropped to his knees. How should he find Tony? There were far too many possibilities, he could be everywhere, in every cave, on every stretch of beach.

 _Or nowhere._ He felt sick at his own thought.

Nobody said that Tony was in the area, maybe he was further north, maybe he had landed in the sea, perhaps already been torn to shreds in the air. But Steve didn’t want to think about that. He had to keep looking when it was still bright outside. Earlier he had seen one of the others' planes, which was flying overhead, but right now it was further north. Apparently, the others hadn’t find him, probably they had to bring him back, to make sure he didn’t keep looking. He would like to know if Rhodes had found something, but he couldn’t lose his precious time and walk back to the street. Steve got up again; he had to move on.

He let his eyes wander. The sea to his left was rushing incessantly and waves arrived and retreated. There were more caves in front of him in the distance. Sandstone formations, and in all of them could be Tony.

Slowly he got up and started walking. He held his shield over his head as a sunscreen, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him. He searched for traces of the missing. Steve saw sand. Just sand everywhere. The sunlight made the beach seem even brighter than it was anyway. The Captain squinted his eyes so he wasn’t blinded. Angrily he trudged on. It had to be a hint somewhere! Tony was not stupid, he must have done something to show where he was.

A shadow crept over the beach and Steve looked up. But there was nothing to see except a few clouds. Shaking his head, he let his eyes wander again. Suddenly he stopped. There was a cable! A little further behind was a red piece of sheet metal.

Excitedly, Steve went on. Adrenaline rushed through his body as he found more and more parts of the Iron Man Suit.

Tears of happiness formed in his eyes, which he quickly blinked away. "Tony? Tony! Stark, where are you?" he shouted as loud as he could. He didn’t care anymore if anyone else could hear him. Tony had to be here, he just had to. As if he had gotten new power, he now ran to the parts. Unbelievable joy came over him when he realized that the mechanic somehow got all the parts at the beach. He came closer and closer to a big sandstone.

The rock was large and formed an entrance to a cave that admitted humans to fall into it. Steve swallowed as he stopped a few yards in front of it. If Tony was not there, he would not know where to look. The hints were too clear. Panic came over him. What if someone had found him before? Or if Tony was dead?

Suddenly Steve threw his shield in the sand. No, Tony wasn’t dead. He's not dying so easily, Steve thought, remembering the fight in New York, where he thought he had lost his friend.

But Tony didn’t die.

Neither would he be dead now. Once more, Steve breathed, then cautiously climbed over a small rock and walked into the big sandstone cave. Everywhere was the same beige tone, only on the floor was filled with the light sand. And in the center of the cave lay Tony, deathly pale, with several wounds, with burned skin, with an open fracture on his right arm.

"Tony," Steve whispered, putting a hand over his mouth. "No."

Quickly Steve ran next to the man and searched with trembling hands for a pulse. _Weak, but existing._ A wave of relief came over him and he had to hold on briefly, to not thank some gods. His hands were still trembling as he tried to wipe some soot from a wound on the mechanic's head.

"Jesus," he mumbled. "What happened?"

At first, Steve only noticed Tony's head and torso, which was covered in wounds and dirt. In some places the skin was burnt and peeled off, on others, it festered from inflamed wounds. Steve's breathing was much too fast and he had to blink again so that tears did not blur his vision. His gaze wandered down the body and suddenly hung. There was nothing where the legs should be. Another wave of panic overcame him and a whimper left his mouth. If Tony was lying here without legs, it would be a miracle that he was not yet bleeding to death, and it would be even more of a miracle if he survived the transfer to a hospital.

Panicky Steve dug in the sand. The fear grew bigger and bigger as he just found more sand. Sweat gathered again on his forehead. "Please don’t. Don’t fucking do that to me," he murmured, almost looking like a dog searching for a bone. His hands slid through the damp sand, pulling out only this again and again. His breathing was much too fast now, and he felt stabbed in the lungs.

Carelessly he threw the sand next to him and kept searching. Suddenly he felt something hard. Steve closed his eyes briefly. The panic vanished when he saw the red rails protecting Tony's legs. Relieved, Steve dropped his head. "Thanks," he mumbled. "At least you don’t do that to us."

Still as dead, the man lay there as Steve kept going and got his legs out of the sand. The paint was gone from the protectors in some places, but otherwise, the rails seemed as if they had made the legs survive the fall unscathed.

Steve spent almost half an hour digging. Again and again, he stopped, wiping the sweat from his forehead or checking the other's pulse and breathing. When he was done, he had no chance to take a break. He stood up too fast, and for a moment the whole cave turned, but he pulled himself together.

Tony's skin felt boiling hot. Somehow, Steve managed to put the mechanic over his shoulders so that as few wounds as possible were worsened. Steve tried to avoid touching the broken arm. Tony would hardly feel the pain during unconsciousness, yet Steve did not want to be rough to him. Like a toddler, Tony lay on Steve's back and did nothing.

"It’s not long from now," he whispered to the unconscious. "I'm so sorry, Tony, I'm so sorry. How could that have happened?"

Thinking that he did not have a first-aid kit, he pinched his jaw muscles together. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Now he had to carry Tony untreated back to the plane. Frightened, he realized this would take several hours with the heavy man on his back. Steve could only hope that Tony would last so long. And he himself, too.

"I found you," he mumbled and took a step forward. "I've found you," the captain muttered again and again.

Cumbersome, Steve picked up his shield from the ground and tried to carry it somehow. More and more pressing was the weight of the man on him and with each step, Steve realized that a sip of water would have been important. And yet he went on over the sand.

 

 

"You’ve got something?" Clint asked over the microphones their partners, who were searching on the ground.

"No, nothing. We’ll go to the road now. Nothing’s here. Vision’s waiting on Rhodes's plane, Scott on Steve's."

"Okay, we're flying a little bit south now. They’ve got to be somewhere."

They had been looking for Steve and Rhodey for over two hours now and hadn’t found anything yet. Concern about the three missing men was clearly written in their faces. Bucky tapped his foot restlessly on the floor, while Natasha stood silently at the window and just stared down.

Clint focused on flying, only occasionally throwing a few sidelong glances at his two colleagues. He knew the two were very worried. Even Bucky, who was always very closed up in their time together, showed emotions. When they fled together, Clint always considered the strange man to be an emotionless wreck who only communicated with others, if at all, in a few words. But while he had exchanged only a few words a day with Bucky - and he was already on top of the list of frequent callers - he and Steve had often been in the conversation for hours. Although Clint had rarely overheard them, it was obvious that Steve was the only person in Bucky's life who could gain a lot of trust. And now that person was gone.

Clint's eyes slid back over the white sand below. Some sandstone formations were all over the beach and created shadows. Suddenly Natasha stirred.

"What's that?" she asked pointing to the beach. Clint didn’t see where she was pointing to, his field of vision was too limited by the equipment, but Bucky ran to her so he could see better. His narrowed eyes suddenly widened as he realized what Natasha was pointing at.

"That's Steve! We’ve got Steve!" he shouted, cheering. If Clint had not joined in the jubilation, he would probably have wondered that the man can show such emotions.

Natasha cheered cheerfully and then looked again more closely. "Tony? Is that Tony on his arm?"

Clint could not really believe what the others were saying and quickly lowered the plane and turned the nose slightly. Now he saw it too: it was Steve carrying Tony over his shoulder.

"We’ve got them!" Clint cheered in the microphone to the others. When the cheers of the others arrived over the communications system, Clint sought a suitable place to land. Fortunately, the plane was built so that it could come down and start almost anywhere without problems. Clint didn’t see what happened, but Natasha suddenly shouted and then put her hand over her mouth. Bucky took a deep breath and suddenly seemed tense. Clint looked over a mirror at the others. "What happened?" He asked curtly.

"Steve fell."

"A fight?"

Bucky shook his head. "Doesn’t look that way. He moves. I think he saw us!"

"I can land now. You go and help. I'll be right with you in a sec."

Too slow for Clint's wishes, he could bring the plane to a halt. The two others hectically moved behind him. While Natasha fetched a first-aid kit, Bucky tried to pull a daybed out of the medical room. The rush didn’t make it easier for Clint to land well, but when he finally opened the doors, the two were gone immediately. He also unbuckled himself, took another bottle of water and jogged off the plane.

The sun blinded him directly as he stepped outside and the heat came towards him like a wall. After the air-conditioned plane, it was hard to walk in the hot summer afternoon. But Clint looked around and could immediately make out the group of four people who were off the plane. When he arrived, Bucky was helping Steve, whose face was flushed. Clint's gaze sought Tony. The mechanic lay on the ground behind Steve and was just checked for injuries by Natasha. His face looked terrible. The wounds on the stomach already hurt while watching.

Steve's gaze practically slipped through him, and Clint could tell he had not drunk enough. "Here," he threw the water bottle at him. "We go home. Can you walk?"

Gratefully, Steve took the bottle and took a sip. "Yeah, I can. Help Natasha with Tony."

Only a few minutes later they flew back to bring Tony to the hospital wards in the headquarter. The others would still wait for Rhodey and then take the two other planes. They had secured Tony. 

 

Nobody noticed that the aircraft, which flew several miles above them, disappeared as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quick switches in the person of viewing will end soon. The better chapters aren't that long away anymore and than it will be mostly just one perspective. Also, this whole part with the pain and stuff won't take too long and we'll go forward in the story. Might even meet that person from the prologue again.  
> I wish you all a wonderful weekend!


	9. Chapter 9

When Tony woke up, panic overcame him. His hands, his fingers, even his eyes didn’t obey. He knew that he had to lie somewhere, probably in a bed. But his body didn’t respond to his orders. The panic grew bigger and bigger. He tried to break free, but it felt like his nightmares: he couldn’t escape, he couldn’t get out. Desperately, he tried to scream for help, but nothing happened. Then he heard a noise. A door opened a few feet away. Tony listened attentively. There was a brief silence, and then a voice, right next to Tony, spoke quietly into the direction of the door.

"You’ve got something new?"

Tony froze. That was Steve. On the other side, someone let out an irritated breath. Tony tried to open his eyes, but they still didn’t obey. He wanted to shout something, but not a single sound left his mouth. The others had searched for him - and had found him.

"Nothing new," said another voice Tony could identify as Barnes's, "but you need to rest. You didn’t sleep at all. It neither helps Tony nor you. You too, Rhodes. Vision is coming in and stays here, nothing will happen. Both go and rest!"

If Tony could move, he would tense up now. Barnes was there and he ventured to get close to him. Somewhere in his head he heard Pepper talking that none of this had been wanted, but he also heard his mother screaming, but much louder.Barnes' voice came now from the corner where Steve's voice had been before, right next to his right ear.

"Stark’s strong," he heard Barnes speak again. "He’ll do it. You can’t stay here all the time."

"Vision’s coming?" he heard Rhodey ask quietly. His voice sounded tired.

Tony couldn’t hear an answer, but then he clearly heard that several chairs were moving and people were slowly leaving the room.

And he was alone. His mother’s cry echoed in his head.

 

It was completely dark in the hospital ward of the Avengers headquarters.

The few nurses who were currently in the huge building slept or were inattentive. Their eyes were on the devices, which constantly displayed the exact values of the condition of the sick. The Person moved silently across the floor, thinking of the plump woman in the entrance room, who now slept peacefully. She would only find out she was not paying close enough attention to her patient once the guard changed.

Daytimes, the dark glass on both sides of the corridor was supposed to mirror people who were running around here. It would not allow them to take a look into the rooms with the ultramodern equipment.

But when it was dark, this reflection did not work. Just a little light came from the one used room of this corridor. The monitors, which displayed all the important data right next to the patient, kept shining in the large room. But for The Person, these monitors would only give the necessary light. They would not show any data that were from interest.

The Figure moved very quietly into the room, no sound was heard. The Person knew exactly that the last visitor had left fourteen minutes ago. Now was the time to go inside. Almost sceptically, The Person watched down at Tony Stark, who lay lifeless on the small, white bed. Sores on the head were sewn and the right arm was sheathed, but The Person needed to know more. Slowly, The Figure pulled the blanket from under the weak arms of the mechanic and opened the hospital clothes with the utmost ease. Although Stark had invested a lot of money in the best equipment, he had insisted on such hospital shirts. They should be better for the patients if the doctor must open the shirts without having to lift the body.

The Figure wondered if Stark had even remotely thought of lying here himself and wearing such shirts.

Quite shallow, the intruder ran his hand over one of the many wounds on the man's upper body. He knew very well that the other's legs had not been injured dramatically, he would not have to search there. His job was to view and evaluate the wounds. They would hurt the man, but modern medicine would make it a miracle if they stayed for long. Most of it would heal soon and then The Figure would have more opportunities to act.

His hands moved quietly back to the man's head. The left hand rested on the larynx, the other wandered a little further up, right to the mouth.

With his pinky finger he covered the nostrils, while the whole hand was pressed to the mouth. With the other he stroked gently back and forth, down the neck and up again.

It only took a couple of seconds before the unconscious showed the expected reaction. Although Tony Stark was mentally absent, his body wriggled under the hand of the unannounced visitor. Not much longer than necessary, the person held his hand over his mouth and nose, then took it off again. The damaged body below hissed air, but did not wake. Almost relieved, The Person left out a silent sight.

In his mind, the person went through the tasks that had to be done.

_Find Stark, watch Stark, test Stark. Continue to watch and leave him._

With a watchful eye, The Person stood next to the hospital bed and did not move an inch for ten minutes. The whole time Stark did nothing but to sleep, as if he was not at mortal danger.

After that time The Person slowly moved out of the room. No one would know that The Figure had been here. Only if they looked closely they could they see on the surveillance screens that the time on one of the small monitors did not change for a quarter of an hour. But no one would pay attention to such trifles. The information would find its way to the employer, secretly and safely, as always.

 

 

When Tony woke up again, he needed a moment to realize where he was. With rising fear, he tried to move his little finger to do something. It worked. Relieved, he sighed. He could move. Slowly he opened his eyes and was immediately blinded, yet he didn’t close them. He looked around, his jaw clenched. He lay in a big room. The walls were mostly dark glass, and appliances and other equipment stood everywhere displaying a variety of numbers. The glasses on other side of the room were tinted, but Tony could still see a large park. Then he recognized the place.

It was the headquarters of the Avengers. This was the infirmary.

Slowly he tried to turn his head. His whole body ached, he still felt the strong throb of his head; his ribs and right forearm ached, in addition to several other places. But he managed to turn his head. What he saw then made his eyes go wide.

Beside his bed, where he lay, was Steve asleep, somehow managing not to fall off a small chair. So he was really here. Tony didn’t know how to feel.

He suddenly remembered a lot of things they had experienced together. Nice, but also bad stuff. He saw Siberia for a moment, feeling the disappointment and anger again that Steve had brought him with his parents' video back then, the unbelievably bad feeling when he had to fight him again.

Now the soldier moved. He groaned briefly as he woke up in the uncomfortable situation, then let his eyes glide sleepily through the room. Only a few seconds later, Steve saw that Tony was staring at him. He immediately opened his eyes.

"Tony?" he asked in disbelief, "You’re awake?"

Tony closed his eyes. His rough voice fainted across the room. "Apparently. How long have I been gone?"

"The fight was a little less than two days ago. Tony, I ... I'm sorry. I could’ve prevented all this. I mean - If I had fought the creature. I should have told you about what Bucky - what Barnes did. I didn't want you to feel betrayed. I think - I  _know -_ I messed it up. I was selfish, I really didn't think and I mean - like I... I almost killed you." His voice broke in the end and Tony just stared at him silently. He didn’t say anything.

"I know you can’t forgive me, that wouldn't be right, but I wanted to tell you that I didn’t want it to go down the way it did." Still, Tony just stared at him, apparently making Steve feel uncomfortable. 

"I did never want to hurt you, Tony. I swear to god, I never did. I just made a big mistake and even if you don't believe me, I need to say that to you. I really, never wanted to hurt you."

He waited again and just stared at him. Tony felt like he saw something like panic rising in his voice. He could see that Steve didn't feel safe next to him.

"I'm sorry, Tony. Please say something. Please," he finally said, trying to catch a breath in the end. There was a long pause in the room, before Tony moved briefly with a face distorted with pain.

"I know you didn’t want to do that," he rasped quietly, "but you did. And it doesn't matter what you say, you know that. Not, if you act differently." Tony fell silent. He didn’t want to do this, but Steve sat next to him and stared at him as if everything was alright. As if Tony didn’t know what he knew and as if he had never hit him with a shield when he was already down. He swallowed.  _I'm sorry._  "You should’ve told me. You knew it. You should have said _something._ You know that - you should've signed the agreement. You know what happens. Since Ultron, we’ve known what happens when we act by our selves. We shouldn’t have fought. You knew it." Tony stared at him. "For how long did you know?" he asked, not wanting to hear the answer. He stared at Steve who nodded slightly. "How were you able to be around me?" his voice broke a bit but Steve didn't seem to notice.

Tony didn’t mean to say that, he wanted the soldier to stay and maybe even comfort him, he wanted it to be the way it used to be. But he knew that wouldn’t work. "Give me the time," he said instead. 

Steve had betrayed him, had fought him, placed the friendship with a murderer over friendship with him. And now all memories came back to Tony.

It was very quiet in the room. Steve seemed to know that Tony wouldn’t forgive him, he noted. Tony saw only understanding, a little disappointment, but no dislike, no incomprehension in the other man’s eyes. It was a strange situation. Each of them knew from the very beginning that Tony wouldn’t forgive Steve directly. But still the soldier was here. And both were disappointed with the solution, but both were understanding. The two knew that it would never be the same between them as it once had been. Too much had happened. They both knew it and yet the two men looked at each other extensively.

"I'm really sorry, Tony. I know what I did wrong," murmured Steve to Tony. Tonys eyes didn’t shine the way they used to, he recognised. They didn’t show the joy of the mechanic as they used to, they merely showed how broken the man was.

Steve could see the pain and the inner turmoil. But he knew that for the time being he would only make things worse. The soldier stood slowly, patting Tony slightly on the upper arm, and looked sadly down at the man lying on the bed. “You know, Rhodes had been here most of the time, too”, he said. Tony did not answer. He knew it anyways.

"I'll call the doctors," Steve said softly and walked out of the room.

 

 

For some reason, Tony had hoped he would have a moment of peace after Steve had left, even though he'd been surrounded by a depressing silence for so long in recent days. So, it bothered him that almost immediately several doctors and nurses came storming into the room who all demand answers from him and checked the monitors.

"What's your name?" Tony was asked after a brief greeting from an elderly doctor.

Annoyed, he rolled his eyes. "Tony Stark. I kinda got into an explosion because of my work - I save the world by the way, you know - but didn’t fall on my head. I wouldn’t be here if I had. I don’t suffer memory loss. Just keep going, please, don’t waste my time."

The doctor blushed, but at the same time he narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "Excuse me, Mr. Stark. But I had to ask that because- "

"Yes," interrupted the mechanic. "Now you’ve got your answer, so hurry up. I don’t have much time. You know, there are aliens out there who just wanted to attack a metropolis. I'm kind of busy."

The doctor quickly said goodbye and took a few steps away, probably to write down Tony's answers. But he couldn’t see that, because a new doctor pushed herself into his field of vision. He groaned, annoyed. The woman had a clipboard in her hand. It was like he didn’t spent millions of dollars on the most modern equipment!

The doctor had tied her hair into a strict braid and now looked at Tony.

"Your blood levels aren’t right," she said sharply with a southern accent. "You’ll get medication. And painkillers for the bruised ribs and the arm. The flesh wounds will heal quickly. You can be lucky you’ve got no internal bleeding. This whole thing could’ve been much worse for you, Mr. Stark. The wounds from the splinters will probably be seen on your arm for a long time, but the rest will heal well."

"Fine. Can I go now?" Tony asked annoyed and tried to move with his good arm in a vertical position, but jerked back immediately. He was glad that his ribs were apparently just bruised. That wouldn’t make the next months to hell but only bother him for a few weeks.

Shaking his head, the woman watched him. "We'll send you back to your quarters right away, Mr. Stark. Just let us finish our work first."

It was not until they had explained in detail when Tony had to take which pills, and after another blood test was done, that his bed was pushed through the hospital wing to the elevator and his room.

 

“Friday," Tony shouted when he was finally alone. He wanted to ask a question but there was a knock at his door. Annoyed, the mechanic briefly closed his eyes, then wiped his face and tried to sit in a halfway upright position in the big bed. "Yes," he shouted and put on a fake smile. Rhodey opened the door and smiled in relief as he saw his best friend lying on the bed. "You look awful!" he greeted but then gently touched Tony's healthy arm and sat down in a chair by his bedside.

"Glad to see you again, too" Tony replied dryly. A real smile replaced the fake one and he was relieved to see his best friend again.

"How are you? The doctors barely stopped when they informed us about your injuries."

Tony shook his head. "I’m great. Okay, I’ve been better before," he added, seeing Rhodey's admonishing expression. "You?"

"I'm pretty relieved. You don’t know how scared I was about you!"

The honest smile widened on Tony's lips. He, too, had been scared in the last few days, but he certainly wouldn’t admit it.

"And people say it's a simple life when you're friends with a billionaire," Rhodey muttered just loud enough for Tony to hear.

"I just did my job!"

"And almost killed yourself! A few hours longer out there, and you wouldn’t be here! We could’ve -"

But he did not get any further, because Tony interrupted his friend, who slowly got himself angry. "No, we couldn’t have done anything differently!"

Of course, he'd thought about what he could do, calculating everything at his flight from New York to Toms River. But the only way to save the inhabitants of the small city and the nearby metropolis had been to shoot the creature in the air.

"We hadn’t had time anymore," Tony continued, trying to get a bit more into a straight position. He hated it when he looked powerless, and he definitely did in that moment. Sunk in the pillow of the huge bed and his arm in a sling. And if he looked only half as tired as he felt, he certainly would not be a big eye-catcher.

"The former Tony Stark might not have done this."

“Yeah, but the Tony Stark who wouldn’t have done that is still sitting in a cave in Afghanistan. Don’t fool yourself, you know I had to do it."

Rhodey leaned back in his chair and ran his tongue over his lips, but said nothing to his friend.

"See, don’t blame me”, Tony said. “But to get to the important topics: What do you know about these Aliens?"

"The monsters?" Rhodey asked and Tony just nodded slightly. His mind somehow still didn’t allow him to use the word "monster" seriously, even after the attack in New York a few years ago.

"Not much," Rhodey admitted. "Some of us are on missions. Scott Lang and Wilson are now in Europe, along with some agents. There have been a couple of power cuts in Norway. As here, just before the plane arrived. Natasha and Clint were traveling in the States, but are back now. The information haven’t been sufficient and-"

"So you know nothing. Great agent group!"

Rhodey looked at his friend with raised eyebrows. "We don’t have any clues. We brought some of the bodies here. A few are being investigated, maybe we'll find something."

"Please let them bring one of these critters into my workshop. I'll take a closer look. If the people of SHIELD don’t manage that, I'll have to go back."

Rhodey nodded. "I’m sure SHIELD’s got incredibly intelligent people working with those aliens. And if they didn’t find something, then you’ll hardly be able to do so in your condition."

Tony looked at him challengingly. "Okay, there's a dead body already”, Rhodey admitted. “But you aren’t going there today. Tomorrow is the earliest date on which I allow you to get out of here. And just if you can move properly."

"I'm not stupid, Rhodes. You can be the babysitter, if you want. But then please bring me my food and everything, too."

Rolling his eyes, Rhodey shook his head. "I can’t be your babysitter. I have to go to New York right away. We have to attend a press conference.  Every single media agency claims to know something different about the great hero of America, Anthony Edward Stark. We’ve got to put an end to it."

"We?"

Slowly, Tony felt the painkillers begin to work again. His eyelids grew heavier and it took some effort to keep his face upright.

"The other Avengers who are still in New York. Steve, Barnes, Natasha, Clint, Wanda and me. And Fury. By the way, he made a very special appearance when you were gone."

"Really?"

"I'll tell you later. I have to go soon. Just so you know it; we were officially considered to be a self-employed team by the government. So we're the Avengers again."

Tony thought of Steve and Bucky Barnes, who were supposed to be his teammates, actually his family. He wondered how his father would think about the fact that the best friend of his hero, the murderer of himself, was working with his useless son in an avenging team. A bitter smile played around Tony's lips, but he wasn’t happy.

 _What irony_ , he thought, but then looked at Rhodey again. "Are you going to talk about the aliens?"

"We’ll avoid it. People shouldn’t panic. We can do it."

"I should be there," Tony contradicted. "I can sit. And I don’t slow down with healing when I'm in front of cameras."

Rhodey snorted and grinned at him. "As I know you, you would still break your second arm during the conference. No, you better stay here. Watch the conference on TV and if we're that bad, you'll do better next time. Today you stay here. And if you contradict I'll get that babysitter!"

Annoyed, Tony accepted the opinion of his friend. He thought it was terrible when others made decisions and he couldn’t interfere. And when other people also announced those decisions he liked it even less. He also wanted to show people that he was fine. He wanted to be seen, and not just be the bit of misery that was talked about.

"I let Friday make sure you stay in your room."

The colonel quickly looked at his cell phone. "But I'll have to leave now. The conference will start soon. It was nice to finally see you alive!"

"It's always nice to see me being alive!"

Rhodey pretended to think about it as he got up and Tony really smiled again.

"Enjoy your conference."

"Thanks buddy. See you tomorrow!"

And then Rhodey left the room and Tony was alone again.

He waited barely a minute before ordering Friday to inform him when the others had left the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I didn’t know if “The Person” is still “he” or “it” if I don't want to spoil the gender yet, so I needed to write it this way. I didn’t find out about this on the internet, neither. So, yeah, sorry for that. Maybe somebody can enlighten me?
> 
> Thanks for the comment on the last chapter, that was amazing! And also thanks again for the kudos. 
> 
> I wish you a nice day and to all Americans out there: I'll wish you a nice day after you've been voting.  
> See you next weekend!


	10. Chapter 10

Lost in thought Steve stared out of the big window. He had thrown himself next to Natasha on the couch and tried to organize his thoughts. He was happy. Tony had woken up and even if he wanted to get away from Steve, that was kind of a start.  

The Russian woman was staring intently at a tablet in her hand. "What are you waiting for?"

"Messages from SHIELD. Something about the monsters. Nothing came in yet. Here, take a look."

The agent gave Steve her private cell phone, which showed the news. "The _New York Post_ wants to know more than we do," she explained. "Look."

She scrolled down and showed Steve a paragraph written next to a picture of the monster from the movie "Alien." Tony had forced Steve to watch what he considered to be the most important movies he had missed, practically as a homework assignment.

" _Is the end of the world rising over Toms River_?" Steve read the headline aloud. " _The whole world looks to our rescuers in need. The Avengers are fighting their way to secure the city of Philadelphia. But while we all raise our glasses to the heroes, no one wonders what this attack means. The aliens mean great danger. They are a mad species that savagely and carelessly attacks people and can even drag children with them.  
_ _Experts can only pronounce warnings not to go out alone or, above all, unarmed. Read more…_ "

Steve leaned back in the couch and put the phone on the glass table in front of him. "And what do more serious newspapers write about it?"

He ran his hand over his face and tried to understand why the newspaper had published this article. He caused nothing but fear, which was perhaps justified, but far from helpful.

"Some question how you all were able to be there so quickly. They now question the security systems of the US. Others declare you all should be in prison now. Some warn against further attacks, others are revisiting the old conspiracy theories and sending a lot from Area 51. This has become a popular destination in recent days. A few are waiting for the press conference, but they are also talking about it all day long. The _Post_ and similar newspapers have also brought up many of Tony's stories. We'll have to intervene a bit."

Steve nodded. "Tony won’t like not to be allowed to attend the conference. He’ll want to talk himself."

"And he'll have to wait," Natasha interrupted. "Or do it on the Internet. There are possibilities. Let's see what the doctors say, Rhodey wants to meet him before we fly as well." Natasha looked at Steve from the side. "You talked?"

The soldier nodded and thought of the conversation. "He's ... well, he’s got his reasons."

The Russian sighed. "He never told me what happened. But we all understood that it was bad. He’s still Tony. He’s resilient and will recover. Your shield was down at the lab the whole time and he was also working on a prototype for new suits for all of you. He still has you on the screen, just give him the time he needs. But don’t forget that we’ve got other tasks as well."

Steve nodded. He knew he shouldn’t be so distracted by Tony. That wouldn’t do any good, but he still felt that the mechanic's situation was entirely down to his decisions.

At that moment Clint entered the room and sat down on the couch as well. He greeted them with a nod and then held up a device from the infirmary that looked similar to Tony's cell phone.

"The doctors are done," he explained. "Rhodey went to Tony. Those are the files of what happened to him."

Clint waved his hand and the important data hovered in the air above the glass table. Steve was still excited about the new technology, even though it all developed almost a bit too fast.

"Nothing more than previously thought?" Steve asked, making sure he got the most important parts.

Clint shook his head. "No concussion, no amnesia, nothing. Everything stays the same. The painkillers work and Tony has made clear to go for a quick start of the therapy."

Relieved, Steve breathed. Clint seemed relieved as well, he noticed, and Natasha leaned back a little further. Steve smiled briefly for the good news. "It's good. Do we know anything new about the monsters?"

"Steve, only a few minutes have passed since I told you there is nothing new."

Clint cleared his throat. "Barnes was at SHIELD with Wanda earlier and they both asked a bit. The route the ship must have taken would have passed New York City that the States should have had noticed. Now we’ve got to check what went wrong there."

Steve's hand slid over his face. "So someone at the executive level was involved?"

But Clint shook his head. "Not necessarily. Devices can also have failed. Or employees. Or the ship never flew past New York. I just remember the Chitauri that came out of a wormhole."

Sighing, Steve threw himself back at the couch. "It's getting more and more twisted. Has anyone declared to be the offender yet?"

"Still not," Clint said. "But these monsters couldn’t have acted alone. They didn’t seem to be very intelligent. Someone must’ve hired them and gave them orders."

"So now we have to find out who did it and why. And if they could attack again."

The other two nodded, but Friday spoke up. "Excuse me, but the press conference will start in less than forty-five minutes. The flight time to the building is about thirteen minutes, plus landing and takeoff nearly fifteen. If you want to look around and talk to your teammates before, you need to go now. Mr Barnes, Mr Fury and Miss Maximoff have already arrived at the building and are waiting for your encounter."

"Thanks," Steve murmured to himself. He had already supplanted the artificial intelligence. In any case, he had not missed the voice from nowhere in recent months. "On our way."

 

The flight to New York was fast and uncomplicated. The small screens in the private plane showed the news. About everyone reported from the big press conference in the metropolis or even, at the less reputable channels, showed old videos of Tony.

 _Is nothing else happening right now?,_  Steve wondered and glared out of the window.

It was still bright outside, but the first signs of dusk were already noticeable. More and more lights illuminated the streets of New York and made the evening bustle even clearer. Several cars were in a long traffic jam, from which Steve couldn’t even see the beginning. Clenching his throat, he shook his tie.

They would clarify today all the important changes. The Avengers were again a group and the danger was real.

"You seem a bit restless," Vision spoke to him.

"What?" Steve asked, torn from his thoughts. The Avenger had stood next to Steve and apparently watched him. "Sit down," Steve told him, pointing to the white leather chair across from him. "I'm not restless."

"We'll fly for another five minutes and then take another few minutes to get in front of the cameras. Nevertheless, you are already straightening your tie. Why would you do that if you are not restless?"

Steve looked at Vision in disbelief. "We have an important conference right now. Of course I'm a bit nervous," he confessed.

"I haven’t been fully informed of what is going to be said. How much will we tell people about these monsters?"

"We do not know anything yet, what should we say?"

"Oh-," began Vision, but then interrupted himself.

Steve's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Oh?"

"Oh," confessed the other. Now _he_ seemed a bit restless. "I remember. We do not have any information yet. Did you talk to Tony?"

"Shortly."

Vision nodded understandingly. "Could he remember something? When he carried the monster away? Did something happen?"

Steve shrugged. "Not that I know. I didn’t ask about the attack, but rather how he was doing. Lieutenant Rhodes talked to him, though. I thought he already told you everything."

Vision let his eyes glide through the plane. "No, he has not told me anything yet. He looks somewhat dismissive in the last few days."

"Don’t know why," Steve mumbled quietly. "Excuse me, I’ve got to ..."

He pointed with his hand to the toilets at the back of the plane and then walked down the corridor.

 

Steve had often seen the City Hall in New York, but never so crowded. Hundreds of reporters and spectators gathered in front of the building and filmed and photographed the incoming private plane greedy. Not only were the Avengers in there, but it was also unusual to get a permit to fly over the city.

The flashlights blinded Steve, as he climbed out of the plane but he tried not to show it.

He pushed his way through the small alley, which the security tried to keep in line under great difficulty, right behind Natasha.

Several news channels from all over the world tried to take pictures and video footage of the incoming heroes and pushed forward. The security officials tried to ignore them but reaped only bad looks and sometimes even slight pushes if the reporters penetrated too far.

Noise really didn’t bother Steve. He had been at war, it had always been loud. But the reporters shouted to him and his colleagues several questions that he couldn’t understand through the constant noise, so it just annoyed him. Luckily, they didn’t have much to go, because the plane could land just next to the City Hall. Still, with so many people the journey took a long while and over time the captain felt a bit uncomfortable in front of so many cameras. _Tony would have liked to be here_ , he thought.

The doors of the town hall were pushed open when the group arrived and closed again by several security guards. A reporter had tried to run after them, but just before he managed to get in, the door was slammed shut. A man in a suit took over the leadership of the group.

He didn’t introduce himself, nor did he greet the new arrivals, but he simply led them down a corridor, past much more civilized camera crews, and opened a door for them. It was a big, old-fashioned room, maybe an employee's office. Books adorned the walls and dark wood furniture made the room look smaller than it actually was. Maps and pictures of the presidents of the United States adorned the walls and a gold-plated clock indicated the time.

Several chairs stood opposite a large wooden table, on which both file folders and a screen were placed. Through one of the windows, some light fell into the room, showing the dust in the air.

Bucky stood in front of it and looked at the crowds in front of the building. On an uncomfortable wooden chair sat Nick Fury, who nodded to the group as they arrived. Wanda got up from her chair and walked to Steve to kiss him and Clint on the cheek three times, as was customary in Sokovia. Just recently she had started greeting them this way.

Right next to the door and now behind Steve was another camera crew who kept their lenses focused on the newcomers. Four police officers were in the room and should probably provide the feeling of security. Steve felt watched.

Nonetheless, he curtly greeted the strangers and approached Fury and Bucky to greet them as well.

He turned to his best friend, who watched down on the street. "Quite something out there, right?"

The journalists stood in front of the building and even under the trees to get a glimpse of the City Hall. One even seemed to be serving a drone, but he couldn’t see it.

"Some were sent away from the Broadway," Bucky explained. "They were waiting there because there was no room left."

Steve sighed. "Then let's hope we can offer them what they want. And then, hopefully, we'll have our rest. Aren’t there any other problems right now?" he voiced his thoughts from the plane.

"Our country was attacked. Hardly anyone dares to do talk about something else than that. It had been aliens. Anyone writing about the election campaign or Korea or something will go down completely."

Bucky was right. "Probably everything we do is recorded now to make it perhaps the next big story."

Steve took a deep breath and let the air slowly escape his lungs.

"Mr Barnes, Mr Rogers," one of the policemen politely addressed the two. "Mr Fury would like to talk to you."

The director of SHIELD motioned for them to join him and waited for Natasha to arrive, who had taken a closer look at the room. The policeman stood a few feet away from the eight-man group and returned to an expressionless face.

"That Stark woke up is very good," Fury explained. "I’ll need to hear what you've been talking about, Rhodes. Today we’ll only explain that you all work together again and that Stark’s awake and that he’s doing well. We’ll completely refuse information about the aliens."

"We can’t say anything," Clint interjected.

Fury looked at him. "People shouldn’t know that. Could make them restless."

Silently, Steve and the others nodded.

"It’s important that none of you seem nervous when addressing this very sensitive issue. I expect complete commitment from you. In addition, the government should see that they have done the right thing to free all of you from your allegations."

Steve saw that Wanda kneaded her hands restlessly and heard that Bucky exhaled a bit louder than usual. Both were restless and both had their reasons to feel so.

Fury looked at Wanda. "If you're nervous, it's better to talk a bit too little rather than too much. We can’t afford any more missteps."

She nodded, trying to breathe a bit more calmly. Natasha peeked into the room and then asked Fury quietly what she had been interested in for some time.

"We haven’t received any good information about Scott Lang and Sam Wilson yet. Do you know something about them?"

"They were travelling with a special force in Norway and Sweden. A few days ago, they messaged us from a town called Tromsø. They are apparently on the trail of a suspicious group, but they can’t promise too much. I gave the agents a strict ban on reporting via private cell phones or social networks."

Understanding, Natasha nodded. "Can we get more information?"

Fury actually thought for a moment about that, then shook his head. "Not here. The camera crew there is filming every step and I don’t want to know how many bugs have accumulated in this room over the years that haven’t been removed yet. I also can’t promise you the given information was correct."

Sighing, Steve turned around. It was true that such information had to be kept secret, but it bothered him. He would like to go to the people who threatened the United States, and especially those who had hurt Tony so much. And if he was there, he would kill them all.

His hand balled into fists and he lifted his lips.

Calmingly, Bucky put a hand on his shoulder. He seemed to know what was going on with him.

 _Would it be right to kill those people?,_ Steve wondered. But his thoughts were interrupted by a loud gong announcing that the press conference would soon be starting.


	11. Chapter 11

It wasn’t easy to walk with bruised ribs, Tony realized. Cursing, the man leaned against the wall to which he had stalked.

"Damn it, Friday, remember me to not build that big next time," he murmured more to himself than to the AI.

The elevator was several feet away from his room, but the way to it was long enough already.

"Can you," he groaned and hobbled on, "start up all the equipment, please? And make sure nobody can come down."

It wouldn’t bother him too much if someone found out that he had gotten out of bed against his promise, but at least he wanted to be able to work undisturbed.

"Damned lack of time," he cursed. "One day later and I’d be fine!"

The suit would have had to protect him better in such an explosion and especially had to absorb the fall differently. If he hadn’t stopped working on it abruptly, this mistake would have been noticed during the night and would be resolved the next day. With his hand pressed to the aching rib, Tony finally proped himself against the clean mirror in the elevator. His hand left a sweat stain as it slipped a little.

He was glad to be finally able to go to the workshop but would have rather done it walking straight and with a bottle of good whiskey in his hand, instead of moaning like a child about pain that was kind of caused by him. The elevator drove quickly and silently down, and the security password was directly required.

"Seriously, Friday?" he asked. "For me the password as well?"

He typed it in and limped into the anteroom, accessible to most agents and Avengers. The transparent glass gave a good view of the untidy workshop. But Tony's eyes stopped in front of the second security door. The alien lay there, dead and ugly, dumped by people who obviously didn’t think too much about how to shift the alien gently. Tony rolled his eyes when he saw that the thick body lay on top of one arm so that it was certainly damaged.

Again he entered a password and the armored glass door to the workshop opened quietly. The moment Tony entered the shop, more lights went on, showing the chaos even more clearly. Quietly whirring, Dum-E welcomed him.

"You could have tidied up," the mechanic greeted his robot but patted him gently on the head after the little helper had bowed it sadly.

"Tell me, can you help me to put that thing in here?"

 

It took fifteen minutes before Dum-E, with the help of Tony and an outdated prototype of an Iron Man suit, honed the creature to one of the few open spaces in the workshop.

"Well, that worked," Tony rejoiced. "Friday? Would you be so good and close the door again? Oh yeah, play the New York press conference when it starts. And until then; music please!"

Loudly the sounds came from the many loudspeakers and let Tony at least briefly forget the whole situation. He pulled over a chair and sat down carefully. Interested, he bent over the creature and looked at it more closely.

The very unpleasant face of the creature had a black-brown tone, whereby the small brown eyes without recognizable pupils hardly stood out. The nose was more like a plate and reminded Tony of what he knew about the looks of Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter movies.

Tony saw three teeth in the mouth without lips, all of which shone silverily, and several pimples covered the skin of the creature. Tony noticed that only a few hairs grew and that the creature didn’t have ears.

"Friday, scan this thing please."

Tony's gaze wandered down the body in disgust. The neck seemed unprotected. The black-brown skin spanned the adipose tissue, but just below the neck a kind of shell seemed to start. His hand went to the olive plate and touched it. "Rough stuff," he explained, knowing that Friday would put that on record. "Feels like wood, but seems to be a lot more stable."

He tried to pull. "It’s grown. Can’t pick it up." The armor made a smacking sound as it fell back onto the body.

The plate pulled over the whole thick body and released only a few unprotected places. At the important joints - at least for human beings - such as shoulders, elbows or the knee and in the groin area the brown skin was to be seen. "There are very few unprotected spots," Tony explained aloud. "Did you scan everything? Project it there,” Tony said, pointing to his right. Friday built up a life-size image of the being and Tony pinched his eyes in disgust.

"Found something extraordinary?"

The intelligence zoomed in on the face and showed Tony a small section of the spot where the human ear would lie approximately. "There seems to be a deposit of mucus here. I'd need a sample of it to examine, though."

Tony nodded. "Dum-E, get the slime from this creature. Wait, no, I’d prefer to do that. No offence."

Groaning he straightened up and hobbled to the head of the object.

"Boss, wouldn’t it be better if you’d rest, as you were told?" Friday commented on Tony's cursing attempts. But he only shook his head and answered nothing. "Dum-e, will you bring me tweezers and a test tube, please?"

Tony had forgotten the two things and was now glad that the little robot could do such work. Tony found the slime rather quickly. It seemed to be somewhat dry and was deposited directly over a particularly large pimple. The mechanic made a choking sound as he carefully removed the flaky mass from the monster with the tweezers and put it into the test tube. It looked like jelly, he realized. The mucus was slightly yellow, but you could see it. "Take this over there," Tony told his robot who carefully placed the test tube in a machine so that the artificial intelligence could take a closer look at the substance.

"Did SHIELD already find out anything? Can you look into the files?"

"I can try to get the information, just give me a few moments."

“That’s my girl,” Tony said, grinning.

 

Friday spoke up again almost a minute later. "As far as I found out, it has only been approved that the creatures were coming from another planet," the AI said, and Tony wiped his hand over his forehead.

"Incredible," he mumbled.

"It also states that camera shots showed that the brain had ears, and thus by appearance alone - not just the size - is different from the other beings."

"Well, that's interesting," admitted Tony. "Why does the brain have ears?"

He could not imagine that it would be of supernatural value to be the only one in a breed to have ears. "So there are more of these things, either," he concluded, "or where they come from, hearing has the only advantage of being the leader of a group. So the leader is likely to be better equipped against enemies, and so can warn his herd. Friday?"

"This conclusion is not in the files but seems logical. These beings had a spaceship, boss. According to SHIELD agents, the aliens aren’t smart enough to build something like that. And the ship must have been seen from New York at least on the radar, but no one has reported anything. Either the aliens can do more than we think or they came in a very unusual way to Toms River."

Tony was silent. The image of the wormhole spread again. The air that was getting less and less, the feeling when he knew the Arc-Reactor had failed and the huge explosion, like a supernova that he'd never seen before, even though he knew one thing or two about weapons.

"Boss?" Friday brought him back. "There is something in the files about handwritten notes on the ship. In Persian."

Tony frowned. "Humans?"

"Obviously from Afghanistan, Iran or Iraq, Russia or other countries. I can’t get around the security code and open and read it. But I can see it says _per + 2_ "

"According to the language code ISO – I think - 639-2 it’s Persian and two more languages?" Tony recalled.

"Exactly. So there were two more comments in other languages on the note, but they don’t seem to be very important, otherwise, they would have noted it differently."

"That limits the search for the culprit, but it doesn’t make it much easier. There’re a lot of bad guys over there."

Friday said nothing, but Tony felt the grenade explode next to him again. He shook his head. "Do you have anything new about the slime from that thing?"

"Not yet, Boss, the scanning will take some time, probably about five hours."

The inventor sighed. "Okay. Then I’ll take a look at that thing again. Dum-E, will you bring me a coffee, please?"

 

It was barely twenty minutes before Friday spoke to Tony.

"Miss Potts is calling. Should I put her through?" she asked.

Tony started and ran a hand over his face. He had succeeded in displacing Pepper. _Well done._ Guilt sneaked up in him.

"Gladly," he answered, laying aside the pen he was playing with. He turned to his screen, hoping Pepper would start a video call. He waited until Friday connected them.

"Anthony Stark!" he immediately heard the familiar voice and winced slightly. "How can you jump out of a damn plane, disappear without a trace, and then not call me when you are back?"

She called out playing angry, but even though Tony knew she was not serious, he felt bad. He should not have forgotten her.

"Sorry," he replied, but Pepper's voice was louder than his.

"I heard from Rhodey that you are awake again! You're surely back in the workshop, but you didn’t call me. Do you know how much panic rose because of you?"

Tony dropped his head a little. He did not want to hurt her. "I barely had time, sorry, Pepper," he tried to answer. "I was mentally absent a bit, too, I guess.”

At the other end of the line he heard a sigh. In the background cars honked and street noise was clearly audible.

"If you had been gone a day longer, I would’ve come back to find you myself, Tony," she explained more gently. Tony smiled. It was probably true. And if she had found him, she would have blamed him for dropping out of the meetings.

"Would I have to worry about my well-being then?" he asked jokingly.

"With me? Always," his friend answered. She sighed again. "What did you think, Tony?"

The older one looked around in the workshop. His eyes fell on the ugly, dead creature on the ground and he shook his head. "There was a city to defend. The suit should have endured even more. Everything was safe," he tried to reassure her.

"Yes, but the suit _didn’t_ endure more. Do you even understand the danger in which you found yourself?"

"If I hadn’t back then, I would certainly now, after I've already been told that twenty times during the last hour or so. Yes, I understand it. I did the right thing anyway."

There was a brief silence on the other side of the pipe. Then the road noise suddenly disappeared. "I just want you to know we care about you."

"Hmm," Tony nodded and really knew it.

"Well, Tony," Pepper started again after she had greeted someone. "Do you know the New World Millennium Hotel?"

Tony raised his eyebrows. "You've got quite something there." He had heard of the hotel in Hong Kong but had never been there before. The photos he had seen were fabulous.

"Next time you come here, take it. You have a perfect view of the city."

"First of all, I have an alien threat to solve."

Again, Pepper was silent for a moment. "After that. When it is over. Then you take a break, away from the others, if it helps you. With me or Rhodey. Here. Deal?"

Tony put his head back briefly. Pepper meant it really well, but she seemed to think the Avengers business would not be a permanent job, even if she knew it from personal experience.

"Gladly," he said anyway. It would do him good to get away from all the drastic changes. Friday sent a message to his screen.

"Pepper, I have to go. The conference starts right away. I want to watch it. We'll talk again tomorrow, right?"

"It's okay," she answered. "See you tomorrow."

Tony smiled. "Yeah, see you."

The sound clearly indicated that the line had been broken off, and Friday had a channel appear on a screen that would broadcast the press conference.

The cameras first showed the crowded room and were then focused on the wooden table, which was being used by the Avengers, who were greeted with applause. Cameras zoomed in on Steve and Tony made a face as the man waved awkwardly at the cameras.

Wanda sat down on the outside and beside her Rhodey, who seemed somehow happy and at the same time worried. Clint and Natasha - both looking a little tired - were sitting next to them and Fury was sitting in the middle of the table with the Russian. On the other side, between Steve and Barnes was Vision, who seemed a little uncomfortable.

Why the Winter Soldier was part of the team again was a mystery to Tony, and he felt pressure again as he thought of what the man had done. Tony's chest rose and fell too much as he tried to regain control.

The applause subsided and Fury cleared his throat. "Good evening!" he greeted the audience tight and looked into various cameras. "This press conference aims to remove speculation about Mr Anthony Edward Stark and the future work of the Avengers. Please sit down," the man immediately began, pointing the reporters to their seats. A rustling went through the rows and shortly thereafter it was very quiet.

Natasha cleared her throat. "According to the Sokovia Agreement, the appearance of Steven Rogers, James Barnes, Wanda Maximoff, Samuel Wilson, Scott Lang, and Clinton Barton would be illegal, so they will be prosecuted by the United States of America to determine the gravity of the crime."

Cameras clicked wildly, Tony even heard that through the TV. He looked up in surprise. He wouldn’t have thought that the US would put a case to his teammates. 

 _It’s their own fault_ , he thought in defiance. _They could have just listened to us_.

"In addition, it will be checked for all of the Avengers to what extent they had violated their rights to intervene in the fight on the flying object."

Natasha looked at the cameras again. She even smiled slightly, but Tony was sure she was hating this inside. After all, it was also about her. She was very fortunate that Ross had not pursued her crime at the German airport, and now she has been noticed again.  Cleverly, she threw her hair from her forehead.

"For the time being, however, the United Nations have announced that the Avengers can act as a self-sufficient team to protect nations, given that there is a presumption that the planned operation is directly related to the attack over Toms River."

With raised eyes, Tony looked at the screen.

"Only then?" he asked himself aloud. "Idiocy ..."

Natasha took a breath and did a dramatic pause. "We thank the United Nations and the United States of America for this opportunity. We will use this privilege and save the world from further disaster as best we can."

"Excuse me, Miss?" a voice called from the audience. Natasha searched for the speaker. Barnes fumbled nervously at his shirt. "How can you talk about saving countries from catastrophes when every time you appeared so many people get injured or die?"

Natasha opened her mouth, but Clint was faster. He had a stitched wound on his forehead, as Tony noticed, and leaned over to be closer to the microphone.

"Because we do it," he explained and was quiet. Cameras click. He waited a bit before continue talking. "Because we have protected you all from catastrophes and it’s our job to keep doing that. And yes, we’ve made mistakes."

Clint glanced at the floor in front of him and then took a quick glance at Wanda. "People died because of us, but much more were saved. There may be a connection with the emergence of heroes and villains, but we have only speeded up the process. All of this would have happened later, but we protected the citizens of New York, Washington, Sokovia, and all the other places. And we regret all the mistakes we've made because maybe we could have done better. But we are people who may be a bit different, but still people. We make mistakes but we do our best to protect the nations and that is why we should continue to do so. Because it's our job. Not the army, not the police, not the United Nations, no. It's our job and that's why we should continue to be used."

Tony pulled down the corners of his mouth and nodded approvingly, though Clint could not see it, of course. He heard more and more loud clapping from the audience. That was really why they were needed. Clint had understood.

Glances from the other Avengers rested on Clint. This speech seemed to be a spontaneous one. The others nodded approvingly. Steve looked at him, smiling wearily, and Barnes stopped playing on his jacket. Vision kept looking straight ahead, but even Wanda and Fury smiled reassuringly at him.

Natasha waited, then continued talking.

"Our mission has always been and will always be to save as many people as we can, just like we’ve done in Toms River. Like we’ve done with Anthony Stark, who was the subject of many questions."

Tony didn’t move, just stared blankly at the screen.

"Mr Rogers found Mr Stark nearby Toms River a few days ago. He’s got some injuries but will recover soon."

"When does he say something about the attack?" someone shouted from the audience.

This time it was Steve who commented. "He's hurt, that'll wait until he's better."

 _Garbage_ , thought Tony. _I could have said something now._

"There was rumour you weren't allowed to search for him. What happened to that? Did the US lose control about y'all already?" another man asked. He had a strong southern accent and already seemed to be unfriendly. "How are we supposed to  _trust_ you after you've dismissed the first commando you've got? I don't!", he stated and assuring chuttering broke off quietly. 

"There was no official commando on the team not to go and search for Mister Stark", Fury stated. "But there was the question whether they should leave the Headquarters for safety reasons. Especially concerning Mr Rogers, but", he said with empathy, "that wasn't communicated properly by the time he and Mr Rhodes had left, so they did absolutely nothing wrong."

Tony could see quick glances from the others to Fury, seemingly just getting new information. He sighed. 

Someone else moved in the audience and a female voice asked: "Did he really sacrifice himself?"

Steve's eyes sought the speaker.

"Yes," he said. "He has. He’s transported the trigger for this attack from the ship and made sure that we could prevent bigger damage."

Steve simplified the situation greatly, Tony noticed.

"What kind of trigger?", someone else asked. The mechanic raised his eyebrows as Steve looked down. Fury spoke up and the camera pointed quickly at him.

"We will not give any information about the attack and its causes." His one eye watched admonishingly through the ranks. Flashes from the cameras were reflected in his eye.

"Why not?" someone shouted again.

Fury annoyingly twisted his eye. "To not endanger the further action. Information must be kept secret."

It was a simple excuse to say that they didn’t know anything. Tony rolled his eyes. "Special agents, of course," he mumbled to himself. He took a sip of his coffee and waited for the next question.

"So you think somebody of the attackers might be watching this? Were there humans involved, like in Sokovia or New York?", a female jounalist asked. 

he rolled his eyes in annoyance. Fury said a few seconds ago that no further information would be given. _Why don't they get that?,_ he asked himself, already answering this question. It's their job.  _Just like it's mine to get this thing done,_ he thought.

"Friday, tell me if there's something important. I'll take another look at our lovely friend."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! We are getting to the part that I actually really like. So, the newer - and what I think better - chapters are starting in I think the one after the next. But I think, it's getting better from now on.  
> I'd love to read what you think. Is there something I can do better? 
> 
> Would love to read something from you, if you can find the time.
> 
> So, I wish you a wonderful rest of the week!


	12. Chapter 12

Expectantly, James Burkwill investigated the room.

His workers were all confused and there seemed to be no quiet minute. It did not bother him. His eyes clung to the big TV across the room. The press conference from New York went on quietly in the background, but the reporters only asked banal things.

Smiling, Burkwill had watched the reactions of his peers.

Most of these boring, untalented people had hoped that Stark would be dead. They all had their meager problems with him and nobody wanted him to be alive.

James watched in amazement as an elderly gentleman stared into the air with tears in his eyes while two younger men next to him complained loudly about the incompetence of the _o'Zuraq_. He thought the bald man was a quite interesting person. He was not too dump and he certainly knew how to behave. The blond man annoyed him. He was stupid and evil, did not once thought about his actions. But he helped and keeping him close was doing good on James.

Young Kima was sitting a little bit lost at the end of the table, furiously pounding it with his pen. Peter Krum, who was sitting next to James, leaned forward to listen to the words of another mediator – a stupid and below average farsighted woman, widowed just two years ago. She complained about something she was not intelligent enough to comprehend. Peter listened, and James was sure the younger man must be bored because of her. He glanced at James quickly and then thumped loudly on the table.

"Calm down," he shouted. “Quiet.”

Inwardly, James rolled his eyes. He would have liked to keep watching the reactions of the others, but instead, he just kept them in his memory. His blue eyes wandered through the hall. People of different nations and cultures looked at him. He raised his eyebrow. It could be so easy.

_But they are too stupid to get it. Everybody is._

"’Is the End of the World Building Up Across Toms River?’," he instead quoted the headline of a newspaper report. "'Aliens - Weapon of the Enemy, Myth or Propaganda?’”, he waited. The people listened carefully to his British accent he took on when he was seven years old. “’Is it for the Election? – An Alliance could turn the Numbers’, 'Danger nearby Philadelphia - World Powers Must Gear Up.'"

As he spoke, he paid close attention to the reactions of his listeners. Everyone stared at him spellbound, but he could see many confused eyes. Is was foreseeable. It was annoying.

"'President: 'Cohesion is important at those times' - a large Alliance with Russia and China in Sight?'" Restlessly, some of his people sat down differently. Burkwill waited a moment. He smirked slightly.

"Reactions?"

Anxiously his mediators looked at each other. It took them some seconds before one to his left raised his voice carefully. The long gray hair fell asymmetrically into the man's face and Burkwill wrinkled his nose in disgust. "They're scared," he suggested rather than answering it.

Without giving a response, Burkwill continued to look around.

A woman with her black coloured hair turned her head so that her earrings jingled. "They still write about politics. Not about their lives. Not about the dead and obsequies. They don’t mourn correctly."

Something like a smile settled over James' face. He liked her.

Kima scratched his head restlessly. "Although the _o'Zuraq_ failed, people are scared."

Burkwill leaned back in his chair. It made a quiet noise, but nobody cared. _They might have not even heard it. They do not pay attention._

Although Kima could pronounce the strange race’s name perfectly, he apparently did not know anything about them.

He himself took the floor. "The _o'Zuraq_ have not failed”, he stated quietly. They had to pay attention to get his words. They had to listen carefully. “And yes, Lady Elise is right: they still write about politics. This is the eternal weakness of the people: they do not see the real problems. While writing about politics, a ship of aliens has attacked a city not long before. People have died.

They are talking about what alliances would mean for their country, for their patriotism and proudness, but nobody takes a position. There are no demonstrations, no masses of people going out, solicit for help and safety or a stop in their coldness against each other’s homelands."

Burkwill's eyes focused on Kima again. "And the _o'Zuraq_ had by no means failed. Collateral damage is Stark's thing. Not our business. The _o'Kura-Zuraq_ got off the plane at my command. Even Stark's thoughts are comprehensible readable."

 _Though it has been a lot more complicated than the thoughts of average people, like all of you,_ he added in his mind.

"But why did the thing had to die?" asked General Astif, a Syrian war veteran who had been working for Burkwill for several years.

James was watched expectantly. "The _o'Zuraq_ is a little intelligent race with lots of _o'Kura-Zuraqs_. The leaders multiply in large numbers, and if you win one for yourself, the others will, too. As long as the other _o'Kuras_ are not aware of the death of the first _,_ they are all with us and ready as soon as we call them."

James investigated the crowd full of surprised-looking people. Inwardly he sighed. Working with less intelligent people was annoying but a duty. To calm himself, he looked at the perfectly symmetrical pattern on the opposite wall. Each of the many lines on the wall could be mirrored on a vertical and horizontal axis. An artistic gimmick that has calmed him for years.

"Their intelligence goes no further than an average of four commands per _o'Kura-Zuraq_ ,” he explained further. He could not expect them to know this, they would have to open a book for that. _The most of them are too busy trying to be as bad as the things they hate._ He remembered Peter telling him that those books were too hard to understand for the most of them. _Even if they try very hard,_ he had said. _If they tried hard, they would understand,_  he had answered. The next day Cameron Daily had been found dead, trying to build a bomb that should have killed presumably Stark. Peter had to get the book out of the dead man’s safe. It was easy to see that Daily did not get further than page eight. _It was a blast_. He sighed.

“The fact that we were able to set up three guards resembles a giftedness of the brain. And he could still accept two more orders. But their urge to survive is high. If I had just given the order to head for Philadelphia, they would have arrived there, too. The _o'Kura-Zuraq_ would not have gotten out. But we all in this room know what happens; how it feels when innocents die."

A small murmur went through the room and James could see the name "Hannah" in the symmetrical lines on the wall. His fingers drummed on the black leather of his chair.

He turned his eyes away again and he looked at General Astif pervasively. "A city being attacked would bring nothing but innocent people to die, devastated areas and a too-fast death for Stark."

Some of his mediators nodded in agreement.

The old man James had been watching before had still tears in his eyes. He looked at him with a trembling lip and a red face. "And why ain’t Stark dead? Ya promised he’d die! Revenge! Ya promised revenge! Instead, he fucking lives and ‘s considered ... celebrated a hero!"

James lifted his remaining arm reassuringly. "Stark will get his revenge. But would the death of your wife really be avenged if Stark had had a quick death? Before he could fully understand that he would be getting shot, he would already be dead. It wouldn’t be fair. Stark has to feel more pain."

Thoughtfully, the old man lifted his lips. "How did ya know he wouldn’t die?" he asked in his strong southern accent.

"I know people. I know Stark. He thinks he's always trying to save everyone. He had to fly there, doesn’t matter when. Stark is not stupid. He knew that sooner or later he would be needed again. He had to build a new suit after Siberia. Stronger, better of course. He would have flown there even if he had not finished it yet," he paused for a brief moment and watched the others. "Fortunately, I am in the position to know exactly what is going on in the headquarters. That he would finish that day is simple maths."

His mediators looked around restlessly. Burkwill knew he scared them. He knew each and every one of them, as well as he knew every other person in the world. _Of course, they are scared of knowledge._

"Stark had to fly. And since the only possibility to get rid of the threat is that he takes the _o’Kura-Zuraq_ away from that plane, he had to do it. Even if the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ did not previously disable the other flying Avengers, he would have done it. Contrary to his attitude to killing strangers, he would not let any of his teammates die. The penultimate command of the _o'Kura_ was that he should throw Stark away from him. He did that successfully. Stark had to survive with the new suit."

Silence descended across the room. These people needed their time to understand his carefully thought-out plan. James was only too happy to give them to them.

Again, Lady Elise answered. Of all the people in the room, she was probably the second smartest. He liked her very much. Her stern eyes met James'.

"Why didn’t you bring Stark here? Or sent him on the ship to a slow death? What was the reason for this? It could all have been over and we all would have gotten our revenge. You have had the chance to finish him."

Her eyes fell on all the technical devices behind him. She was right. He could have finished it. But there was an even better way.

"They should feel safe. And they will. They will become inattentive and then we continue with another phase."

James Burkwill got up and used his three fingers to make sure that a large picture was projected into the center of the room.

You should be amazed at how useful vulnerable people were.

And how vulnerable Stark was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea to write in an accent. And the 'ya' part is basically everything I know. But for some reason I kept it. I don't know.  
> So, now we are getting somewhere. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing this. This James guy is lovely to write.  
> I would love to know what you think about this chapter. 
> 
> I wish you a nice weekend!


	13. Chapter 13

Tony did not sleep much that night. To calm Rhodey, he hobbled into his room right after the press conference ended. Almost two hours later, he awakened from his light sleep and heard how the others had come back. Some of their rooms were on his level, and although they tried to be quiet, they had not been able to hide from Tony's irritable senses.

At first, he had been disoriented and felt the sand around him until he remembered what had happened. Fortunately, he was able to fall asleep again, because the painkillers he had brought down with a sip of a whiskey in the evening tugged at his capacity.

When he woke up the next morning, his chest felt like it was under fire. The summer morning sun already shone through the large windows and bathed the modern room in a warm light. Many of his visitors, both women and men, found that light beautiful, as they always told him when they were still there in the morning.

Now it blinded Tony. His eyes were still sleepily and he groped disoriented on his bedside table. Judging by the noise, he had just dropped his watch. He winced. Groaning, he pressed his hand to his face and then fumbled for the tablets, which would hopefully make the morning a little more pleasant for him. His other arm laid useless on his stomach.

He finally found the pills and quickly washed them down. It would take a few minutes before they worked, but Tony pushed himself up. He breathed briefly as his ribs began to throb strongly. Slowly he heaved himself up and stood on shaky feet. His left leg buckled and Tony almost fell down if it wasn’t for the wall on which he was able to support himself. He swore quietly to himself, but then managed to limp slowly to the bathroom.

Showering turned out to be difficult; he managed to get away with a plastic bag from his closet around his arm and a small chair he took to the shower.

After getting dressed, he walked slowly in the direction of the elevator. As Tony had expected, it was quiet in the corridor. It was just before seven in the morning, the other Avengers had returned only five hours ago. But Tony was busy. An army of monsters rarely came just like that, somebody had to be behind it. The elevator brought him to the floor where the large kitchen and living area were. The inventor had insisted during the renovation that the team would have a large common room so they could work together more closely. He snorted sarcastically.

As the mirrored doors quietly pushed open, he could take a look at the large area. The modern kitchen with the cooking island had been used a lot by Vision in recent months. The new Avenger had cooked frequently and Tony, Rhodes and Natasha had to taste the results. He rolled his eyes. He hobbled to the island as fast as he could to get some food.

"Should I help you?"

Tony winced when Natasha's voice reached him. "Oh Jesus fucking Christ – “ he started looking for the redhead. She was standing next to the couch; several files were on the table and a hologram floated over it. Tony was unsure how he could not have seen her.

"Well spoken, yesterday," he replied, ignoring her question. He kept walking, careful not to limp too much. A few bruised ribs and the minor leg injuries could not restrict him that much.

"How are you? We didn’t talk yesterday after ... "

"After I've sent Rogers out of my room, who prefers to play protector in a completely safe area than to take care of an alien army?"

Tony grabbed an apple that stood on the island in a bowl and cleaned it with his sweater.

"He worked."

"Yes, I saw that."

“Stop it," Natasha said then. "I know you find it terrible when someone shows something like friendship to you and you're not at least on an equal position, but can you just shut down your ego a bit now, please?"

He knew Natasha didn’t mean to sound mean, and she was probably exhausted but her tone made him angry.

"Friendship? He spent three months in fucking where-ever and suddenly came back and said that everything was alright again. And in tow, he has a- "

Tony had grown louder and had raised his hand menacingly. Natasha looked at him with raised eyebrows and folded arms. "Forget it," he finished. "What do you know about the critters?"

"Not much more than what you already know. 'Unauthorized access to files'. "

Tony frowned. "That's not possible, Friday has everything ...", Tony stopped and looked at Natasha's pleased face. "You’re impossible."

"That's the nicest thing I've ever heard you say, Stark," Natasha replied. According to her grin, Friday had left no traces and she had just wanted to test it. At least his AI was still working, Tony thought grimly.

"SHIELD searches a number of Internet files for images that show the monsters. The FBI also scours through many files in search of answers. But we’ve got no information about these things. There were only two matches with the beings and images on the Internet."

Tony listened intently and Natasha pointed to the hologram. With his hands, Tony enlarged it.

"A painting by a Norwegian child is almost identical to the creatures. The picture was uploaded three years ago by the boy's father. The child was nine years old then."

Tony let out a breath. "Childlike imagination. A coincidence, right?"

Still, Tony had to admit that the monster in the picture looked similar to the creature that lay a few floors below him in his workshop. With ink, the round belly had been painted with a brown colour, but the neck and hands were green and so was the face from which big horns grew. Still, the picture could simply be an unusual representation of the Shrek, a being from a well-known children's film. The outlines had been painted with a thick black brush and a sickle moon shone silver in the righthand corner of the picture. With a spiky handwriting, the boy had written "Malet av Bjarne", _Painted by Bjarne_ , underneath the picture.

"Lang and Wilson are in Norway right now, they will check the case. You can never investigate enough. But we assume that it is nothing else. We found the other picture a few hours ago, it's only been a few days on the Internet. The woman said she had painted it years ago, the night after the Chitauri attack in New York."

Tony raised his eyebrows.

"But she didn’t really know why. She was apparently drunk and had taken a long time on the way back to her home, so she couldn’t explain it. When she got home she painted and did not realize until the next day what was on her sheet. At least that's what she wrote under her post."

The image built up in front of the two and Tony looked at it. It was a pencil drawing that showed a hilly background in portrait format and a creature with a wide-open mouth on it. It seemed to run towards the viewer. Small horns came out of the head and a liquid dripped out of the place, where ears should be. On the shoulders and chest, the body was darker, branches grew from it. In the background were coniferous trees, which were penetrated by fog and at the top of the picture Tony saw again a sickle-shaped moon.

He froze. "This is…"

"Art?"

"Very precisely drawn. Why didn’t she publish the picture earlier, she could’ve made money with it."

Tony noticed the goosebumps that spread in his arms the more he looked at the picture.

"It's not just about the money for everyone. Maybe she was afraid that friends would think she was crazy, maybe a psychopath."

He had to admit that once one of his friends started to paint such pictures, he would take a closer look at them, too. "No chance that she had painted this subsequently?"

"The picture was uploaded just hours after the attack. She could have done it, yes, but it looks too good, too accurate, to paint with the few television images that existed at the time."

"You also check this case?"

"We're still figuring out who it is. The woman hid her data very well, but we should have information soon. What we do know is that she is or was a big fan of Steve and that she probably lives in the United States. But the picture was painted on a trip to Europe. The woman must be between thirty and forty years old, probably has no children and lives alone. Not more."

"I want to talk to her. Can you arrange that?"

Natasha nodded. "SHIELD had suggested sending agents there, but when Wilson and Lang take a look at the child I said we should be able to talk to the woman as well. I wanted to ask Steve if he would come with her if she adored him."

Tony rolled his eyes and his eyes darkened almost imperceptibly. "Of course. Then the charmer is at least something useful and doesn’t play protector again. I still want to go with you. Grandpa has little communication problems, sometimes."

Natasha raised her eyebrows. She still didn’t know what had happened that Tony was so mad at Steve, and she would have liked to say she didn’t care, but she couldn’t.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" she asked, without expecting an answer.

"Oh, yes," Tony replied. "I am sure that Mercedes’ Formula 1 team would have won the last race, but thanks to a mistake in the -"

"Tony! You know what I meant ... If we know anything about the woman, I'll let you know, we'll go right then."

"Thank you," Tony bit off the last bit of his apple and threw it in the bin. "Tell Friday, she'll tell me. I have to work now."

As he passed, he grabbed another apple and walked back to the elevator he had come from a few minutes ago. Natasha watched him with raised eyebrows.

Just before the doors closed, she turned back to the hologram.

 

The analysis of the mucus Tony had found on the creature led to nothing. The chemical composition was similar to polysaccharides in the normal nasal mucus that could be found all over the world. The few percents of deviation could neither Tony, nor Friday explain and also described it as trivial. It led to nothing. Still, Tony told his AI to keep thinking about it but then turned back to his Iron Man suit after the last one was destroyed very quickly. The feeling that he would soon need it again occupied him.

Tonight, the therapy would start. The broken arm should be cured by a special procedure within several days so that Tony could use it again and at the latest then the suit should be finished again.

"Friday, do we know anything about the people at the New York air force?" he asked, leaning over a little cable that he needed to connect to another one.

"Boss?"

"Those who should’ve seen the ship. Do you know something about these people?"

"The SHIELD files said that during the time, two hundred and twenty-eight people worked in the department. Two were ill. About half of them were not necessarily concerned with the radar. But none of them has a motive to harm the US. All are married, have children or are at least in a relationship, are successful or have many friends. No one is alone, very few have recently suffered severe mental damage. If something happens, you can’t work there. It's about security."

"Do always several people watch one area?" Tony asked, rubbing his eyes. There were too few clues. How could a ship of this size go unnoticed to Toms River? He sighed.

"Mostly five to ten people have the same job. But the ship's latest research says it had a pronounced camouflage mechanism. Maybe the technology wasn’t good enough to spot the ship."

The inventor thought of his visit to some government facilities. The technique used to protect the US was state-of-the-art. Partly his inventions were included, too. A team of many MIT graduates dealt with the equipment. He himself knew some of them personally. They were incredibly intelligent people, constantly looking for improvements.

"The alien technique must be far above ours if the ship was not discovered because of camouflage," he replied. "Do you have a plan from the ship?"

Friday was silent for a moment, then she answered again. "There are some pictures of the control room on the file, at least that's what the title says. But I cannot handle the encryption. Should I keep trying, or ask for access?"

Before Tony could answer, Friday talked on. "Miss Romanoff wants you to go upstairs, the painter of the picture could be found."

Tony looked at his watch. It had been two hours since he had gone down. "They’ve been faster. Request access, that's easier. If they don’t grant it, go in yourself."

He got up and took his jacket from the holder and reached for his glasses. He stroked his hair again. They would perform as a team today and they would have to be sovereign. His thoughts had not even drifted to Steve at all, but now he felt that throb in his chest again.

The soldier would be coming. Of course, since talking to him yesterday, Tony had not seen him again, and Steve's conversation was certainly not pleasanter to him than to himself.

He closed his eyes.

They were again a team, not teenagers going through a relationship crisis. He quickly passed his hand over his tired eyes and climbed into the elevator.

The doors closed quietly and the artificial light lit up the small room on its way up.


	14. Chapter 14

Tony drove into the common room. When the doors opened again and his scratched and patched mirror image pushed aside, he entered the room, trying to hobble as little as possible. There would be people in here, guaranteed.

His eyes went first to the kitchen, where Vision chatted quietly with Wanda. It seemed to be important because Wanda answered and gesticulated strongly. On the couch, Tony could make out Natasha, who was explaining something on the files, and Clint, listening intently whilst sitting at his chair. His gaze flickered to Tony and seemed to darken, at least briefly, then he nodded to him and drew the other's attention to him as well.

Rhodes sat next to Clint and raised his hand in greeting, but studied him thoroughly. His brown eyes seemed to scan Tony.

Then Steve turned around. Tony had already seen his blond hair from the elevator. He had his lips pressed together and stared at Tony. It was a mixture of determination, grief, and self-assurance. And something else that Tony could not decipher. His eyes were on Steve a little longer. He studied the soldier. His eyes looked tired, like those of others. But unlike the others, he had no scratches or stains on his face drawing the previous fight.

Steve turned back to the hologram and Natasha nodded to Tony to get closer. Paying attention to his attitude, he slowly walked over to the others and put on a smile.

"Am I disturbing your coffee party?" He asked.

He heard a sigh from Clint but ignored it. Carefully, he sat down on the armrest of Natasha's chair and tried to look relaxed. Only now could he really look at Steve and the person next to him. The Winter Soldier sat next to him, staring at Tony. His brown hair hung down his pale and leached face, but his eyes showed the same pride Tony had seen before.

He stared back. His breathing was faster, for the murderer of his parents, his mother's murderer, was sitting there, a few feet away, as if nothing had happened. Tony noticed that Barnes had knotted his hands together, staring intently at the hologram. His jaw muscles tensed, but then Steve clapped his hands on his lap.

"Let's go," he said, looking at Natasha.

She had studied the reactions of the Avengers closely and understood that Steve wanted to postpone this encounter. She nodded.

"We’ll take a car. The woman lives in New York. "

Tony's eyebrows rose. So, in New York. He nodded and stood up again. He threw one last look at Barnes, who now stared at Tony. When he saw that his eyes had turned to him again, he turned away.

"Come on, Grandpa, get up," Tony said to Steve. He nodded to Rhodes, then walked back to the elevator. Natasha and Steve joined in and the soldier pressed the button to start moving.

"New York, then?" Tony asked to end the silence that was about to go over the elevator. He looked directly at Natasha. Steve was standing right next to the door, but he tried not to look at him. He only glanced at the man who studied him. He wore a white T-shirt and a leather jacket over it. The pants were wide and exactly the style Steve had three months ago.

"East Harlem," Natasha explained. "A district of Manhattan, north of the central park. A rundown area."

Tony nodded. "Know that place. Haven’t been there for a long time, but it wouldn’t have changed much. What do you know about the woman?"

"Abbie Lopez is her name. She is thirty-six years old, lives alone in her apartment. She has been single for more than a year. She's an artist herself, even studying in New York."

The doors opened and the three Avengers went out into the hallway. Tony could not resist a small moan as his rib stabbed sharply. Steve looked worried but still did not say anything. Natasha looked at him but then walked away from them.

"We'll take the black SUV," she said. "It looks different, but it doesn’t stand out as much as one of your cars, Tony."

The mechanic nodded. He had no problem with attracting attention, but such a car in a relatively poor area could cause problems. A driver, leaning against the car, smoking, waved to them before entering.

The three Avengers sat back. Tony and Steve sat side by side and Natasha sat down opposite them. Immediately the soldier looked out of the tinted windows as if he found it uncomfortable to sit next to Tony.

The first minutes of the journey were silent until Natasha cleared her throat. "Barnes will stay in the team. You should nourish yourself."

Tony snorted and Steve changed his position.

"Look, I don’t know what happened, and maybe I'll never know, but at least you should get it together. Because of you, the whole thing has escalated, but now it's over. The others need you. As a team, as it used to be."

Tony could not help rolling his eyes, secretly knowing it was true. And he wanted everything to be as it used to be, before the deal. Memories of how he was drinking with Steve or watching movies came up in him.

He remembered how the soldier and he watched Star Wars for a whole night, and how thrilled Tony was that the other loved it as much as he did.

Steve moved restlessly beside him but said nothing. Again, they fell into silence, which lasted almost the entire ride, until a small noise broke the silence. Steve moved and looked at something - Tony didn’t even bother to take his eyes off the street.

"Helmut Zemo has escaped," the other man suddenly said in a much thinner voice than Tony expected.

"What?", Natasha asked and simultaneously the mechanic turned to Steve. For the first time, he examined him correctly. His blond hair was illuminated by the small display of his cell phone.

"There was a total mess in the jail. Power failure, a mass brawl, burglary. Now Zemo’s gone."

Tony breathed in and out again. He remembered the man who had told Steve that there was something green in the blue eyes. Tony remembered the mass grave they had stood in about three months ago. The moment in which he still thought it could all be okay, before Zemo showed the video.

Again, the pressure built in his chest and Tony clenched his hands into fists. "That damned piece ..." he heard Steve mumble, continuing to read on his smartphone.

"He was detained in a high-security prison; how could that happen?" Tony asked Steve.

He was startled, apparently confused that Tony spoke to him. "It was something with ... a hacker who made the mess possible," he explained. "Something with servers and IPs and ... read yourself."

Steve handed Tony his cell phone and their hands touched, triggering Tony's familiar feeling. He could feel the tingling of heat that spread not only in his fingers, but then the soldier pulled his hand back and the feeling was gone as quickly as it had come.

A message had been sent to Steve, and Tony quickly read it. There was a technical issue that was called due to a server overload. In retrospect, traces of foreign IPs were found, but still could not be assigned. Tony sighed as he read the further description of the problem. Then he handed the phone back.

Helmut Zemo was free again, cut off due to a technical problem. He ran his hand over his face. He briefly glanced at Steve, who looked just as frustrated. He stared at the phone with his eyebrows contracted, then sighed.

"They'll take care of it," he said to Tony. He was still annoyed at his mistake not to have told Tony in advance about his parents' death. He was aware that in the end, the situation escalated because of him.

"They’ll find him, he can’t be that far."

Tony nodded to Steve and then turned back to the window. Behind the tinted glass, he could see the houses in the streets of Manhattan. In this part of town, the buildings were old and had not been renovated for a long time, but they were relatively cheap. A homeless man stared after the big car and screamed something the mechanic could not hear through the closed windows.

"We'll be there in a few minutes," the driver said through an intercom.

Natasha nodded to the two men and ran through her hair. Steve sighed loudly and Tony straightened his glasses before the car stopped and the doors opened automatically. One after the other, they stepped out into the street and looked at a red brick building of at least five stories.

A garbage can was in front of it and almost overflowed and papers and cardboard covered the narrow sidewalk in front of it. Teenagers heard loud music in an alley next to the house, which made Tony just roll his eyes.

Steve put his hand over his eyes to shield them from the blinding sun and Natasha looked around attentively. Before turning to the old house number 73, Steve turned to the driver and thanked him. "You can drive around a bit, then the car isn’t so irritating around here. We'll call you when we need you again."

The man nodded and got into the car, which tipped sideways under his weight.

Natasha went ahead and scanned the doorbell before pressing one of the names. Tony bobbed back and forth as far as his ribs would allow and was about to say something when a voice came through the speaker.

"Yes?", a woman asked.

"We announced ourselves. Which floor should we go to?"

"Three," she answered curtly.

Tony raised his eyebrows due to the tight conversation, but then the buzzing noise sounded and Natasha pushed the door open.

"Then let’s go," Tony mumbled more to himself than to the others.

The stairwell was stuffy. Light came through the open door into the narrow corridor, letting the dust glow in the air. It smelled like old food and much older people. Tony wrinkled his nose.

The floor was tiled in black and white and the walls were painted green, but here and there concrete had been smeared over broken areas. In some places, another shade of green had masked the stains, but Tony's eyes for design bristled.

Some old, rotten wood divided the wall in the middle and probably once looked good a few decades ago, but now it only showed that the house urgently needed a refurbishment.

A dog barked in the apartment to her right and the three went straight on. A staircase led upstairs, there was no elevator.

Natasha looked at Tony and Steve could not help looking at the mechanic as well.

"Can you do that?", he finally asked and pointed to the stairs and with the other hand on Tony's upper body.

"My legs are still working, Cap," Tony explained, moving ahead, but he was sure that would be an exhausting road. He was very happy at the moment that the painkillers worked wonders because the steps were narrow and high and he was sure that this could be exhausting even if you had no bruised ribs.

But he would refuse to ask for help after doing so much in the last few weeks without help, and reached with his good hand for the rotten wooden railing and went slowly ahead.

Behind him, he heard Natasha and Steve move and could feel their two glances in his back. There was always a mezzanine floor between the real floors, and when he was at the second of those, he could not help but lean against the window and look out into the yard. There were three more stairs he had to walk, and his ribs were already starting to throb, and his heart started to pace. It was unbelievable how quickly the body was able to reduce muscle and capacity, and Tony needed a break.

"Look, even children live here," he said between breaths, trying to give his break a rational explanation. He just wanted to 'see' what was in the yard behind the house. The small floor was made entirely of concrete and there was an old metal swing with a wooden board hanging from two thin threads. Sand and two tricycles were scattered on the floor and Tony's eyes remained there. At least he wanted to rest.

He felt Steve beside him, who also looked out of the window. The soldier did not seem strained from the few flights of stairs, and that annoyed Tony even more that it made him so tired.

Normally, his body would never react that way, but those cursed injuries made everything else impossible.

Natasha was already on the next step when she turned around. "I'll go upstairs, then Mrs Lopez won’t have to wait that long."

Steve nodded beside Tony and kept looking out. The mechanic turned to Natasha but could only see her back. Then he pushed away from the window and went on to the stairs. He could not wait forever. Steve stopped by the window for a moment, then turned to follow Tony. "It looks a bit like Brooklyn back then," he said, to start a conversation.

Tony snorted. "Not only back then."

He remembered a run-down part of Brooklyn, which he drove through a few weeks ago. They walked silently up a few steps.

"Do you think she’ll be able to help?" Tony asked.

Steve shrugged. "The picture looked good, but how does that help us? I don’t know."

Again they fell into silence, which was almost unpleasant. Earlier, Tony recalled, they had often talked about something. And once they were silent, then it had not been unpleasant.

The open third-floor apartment door blew artificial light into the corridor and Tony hurried to get past the last steps. His ribs pounded and pulled, and he wished he had a few more pills with him.

He pulled the door a little further and allowed Steve to step ahead, stepping into the small entryway. He closed the door behind him and looked around. The narrow corridor had light wood on the floor, as well as the same white wood panelling on the walls, up to a meter high. Above it, the wall had been painted in an unpleasant shade of yellow, which might have looked well twenty years ago, but with a few grey and black spots, it simply showed the age of the apartment.

Natasha's shoes were not in the entrance, so Tony figured they should continue to wear them and he and Steve put their jackets on a small cupboard that didn’t even close properly anymore. Through the second door on the left, a small woman with glasses in her hand pushed first, and Natasha followed.

She did not seem to really notice them, but went through the third door, opposite the entrance, gesturing for Natasha to follow her. Steve and Tony followed her as well and entered a small living room. A wooden table stood right next to the door and two chairs stood there. Under a window stood a small couch, which was at the same time probably the bed of the woman, because blankets and pillows lay messily on it. Cabinets lined the walls, and a few pictures, painted and photographed, covered the last vacant spaces in the room.

Tony could see landscapes, but also cities. Some pictures showed fantasy worlds, which the woman had probably painted, others even fight scenes, which could come directly from a comic, if you could not find Captain America himself in between. Tony grinned at Steve and pointed to the picture and the other’s eyebrow raised in confusion. Only then the woman turned to her and breathed in shock.

It was a small, relatively fat woman whose brown hair fell curly over her shoulder. She used a lot of Make-Up under her eyes and earrings rattled on her ears. Her dress style was relatively simple. She was wearing a cardigan over a T-shirt and grey jeans underneath. Her eyes were wide open when she saw Steve.

With unsure steps, she came up to him and shook his hand. "Captain America!" She cried. "Please excuse the mess. If I had known you were coming, then- "

"It's okay," Steve interrupted. One clearly heard her Spanish accent when speaking. Then she turned to Tony. "Mr. Stark, I'm glad to meet you."

With little conviction, she shook his hand and gestured for the three to sit down. Tony pushed a chair around and was glad to finally be able to relax his ribs, even though the cold and hard wood was not as comfortable as a bed or upholstered chair.

"Would you like something to drink?", She pointed to the table next to Tony and the four glasses that stood on it. Next to it a bottle of cheap wine. Tony wondered who was drinking something like this out of normal glasses, but nodded anyway and poured himself and the woman something. Steve and Natasha did not want anything.

"So you painted this picture?", Natasha asked and showed her the picture on the phone. The woman nodded and waddled to one of the cupboards to fumble with it.

When she found what she was looking for, she turned around.

"I painted this one," she said, handing Natasha the thick paper with the pencil drawing. "And a day later I took these pictures at the point where I saw the thing."

Tony looked at the pictures that Natasha accepted. There were eight pictures, all of which were printed on photo paper. They showed a clearing that was completely snowy. Sun fell on the fir trees in the background, but the snow was in many places impressed by imprints. The photo did not show a shoeprint.

"What did you see that evening?" Steve asked the lady.

Abbie Lopez drank some of the wine and touched her temple. "I had been drinking that evening, maybe a little too much. My no ex-wife was in New York at that time and I was on this stupid trip in Europe. This pub was a few hours from Trondheim. I had a hotel in a small village, a few hundred people live there. The pub was small and stuffy but had a TV and a lot to drink. I saw what happened and my wife did not answer. For hours! I feared the worst, that's why I drank. Then, sometime that night, she finally wrote me she was fine."

Tony lowered his eyes. He remembered the attack on New York too well. He knew how scary and terrifying it could be. He could feel the cold in his chest himself, the goose bumps that had spread when he was alone in the vastness of the universe. When a nuclear bomb exploded in front of him, and he was sure that the light would be the last thing he would see in his life.

"I went home then. You must know, I swore I would never drink alcohol because my dad ... He had a problem, died early, but before that he would always beat my _Mamá_ or my brother or me when he was drunk. I never wanted to be like him."

She paused briefly and Tony thought of his own father, who tried to solve his own problems with similar methods.

"I'm sorry," Steve said, putting his hand on Lopez's arm. Tony's lips fell. Steve never told him he was sorry. He shook his head almost imperceptibly. This was a mission, Steve did it to let her speak, and besides, Steve didn’t really knew about his relationship with his father.

"That day I drank alcohol for the first time in my life, so it was too much for me after a few beers. When I went home, I wanted to take the fastest route. I just wanted to sleep."

She looked at the three Avengers alternately.

“Between the pub and the hotel was a forest. A path led through it, and at this point, the forest was not so big, so I walked right through it. It was cold, but there was still no snow lying on the ground, it had just started to snow. I was pleased, you know, because of the flakes that were dancing and because my wife was still alive, and the worst was over and so on. Somehow, I slipped. I can still remember the pain. For two weeks, I had a bruise on my thigh."

She touched her left hip and looked at them. Then she continued softly. "So, I was lying next to the path, but the ground was smooth, and suddenly I heard such a noise. I was afraid. It was the middle of the night, it could have been a boar. It made such a grunt, but a lot louder than I ever thought possible. Then I scratched back. There was a ditch with a river just a few feet behind me. And bushes stood on the bank, so I hid myself."

Her eyes had become glassy at the memory. Tony had straightened up and Steve and Natasha could not take their eyes off the woman anymore.

"So I was sitting there, and _por Dios!_ There was a ... there stomped a thing out of the trees and grunted so loudly. It was certainly twice as big as me and suddenly stopped in the clearing! It grunted, but it seemed to say something. Some kind of slime or water or ... what do I know, dripping from the monster and I was so scared. See, I'll get goose bumps again! It had a note that the creature must have lost there, I found it the next day."

Abbie Lopez handed Tony a wavy note. The paper was already yellowing, and the writing was blurred by water in some places. Tony frowned.

"Whatever this says, it doesn’t make any sense to me."

Natasha pulled the note out of his hand. "Do you know what that means?"

"It must have been what the alien said." She paused. "I could not understand it, but then I heard something else. I can remember exactly. Two men came out from behind the thing. One was old, he smoked and called the other a boy. They talked in English, but the younger one had an accent that I could not match. But he apparently understood the monster."

Tony looked at Steve and Natasha, who both raised their eyebrows. "The older one asked if the creature still says what it should say and the boy said yes. I remember exactly what he said then. _Go west, to the base_. _Then wait for the family_. He said that."

Again, it was quiet for a moment. Then Steve spoke up. "Do you know what was in the West?"

The woman nodded hesitantly. Her voice trembled. "The next morning, after I saw what I had painted, I just heard that voice over and over again. This accent that I couldn’t unhear. So, I went back to the clearing, I shot the photos there. It had snowed a lot during the night. It looked very different. Ten inches high was the snow, but not in the clearing. Everything was flattened, as you can see."

She pointed to the photo. Her eyes focused on it, and it almost seemed like she was standing there again.

"I looked in which direction West was. And those tracks ran just that way. So, I followed them, always west. It was cold that day and I had a headache, but I kept running. For two hours, until the tracks suddenly disappeared."

"They disappeared?"

"It was a river. The tracks stopped at this river. I searched for a long time. There was a ford, I ran over, through the icy water to find the tracks on the other side, but they were just gone. As if those things had been swallowed up by the earth. There's a photo of the footprints that go into the water."

She looked at the three again. "That's why I did not tell anyone, not even my now ex-wife, because I thought I was crazy. It had snowed again and on my way back all traces had disappeared under the snow. I thought I had imagined all this, but then I found this note there with those grunts. And then exactly the same things came to Toms River a few days ago. I was shocked, I sat there on the couch and could hardly look at it. I knew it was the same thing, so that's why I published it, the picture, I mean."

"So, there are people who can communicate with these beings?" Tony summarized. "And you saw one of them. And this thing did not come alone, judging for the footsteps, dozens of them were on the spot. They had an order. Do you know where the creatures came from or what the men looked like?"

"When I came back from the river to where I hid the day before, all the tracks were already buried under the snow, so I could not figure out where they came from. And I did not really see the men. One, the younger one, was wearing too big clothings and a black hat. He was black, but as I said, I could not assign the accent. The other wore a suit, that was all I could see. The accent reminded me of the British people, but what do I know. He was a little smaller than the younger and less sporty, but almost a bit ... more powerful built. He had grey hair, but I could not see more in that little light."

Tony sucked in his breath and rubbed his hand thoughtfully over his mouth. Steve moved. "Thanks anyway for your information. We know now more than before. May we take the pictures with us?"

Lopez touched her neck nervously and rubbed around there. "Well, so I only have this one copy. The photos have shaped me and changed my lifestyle very much. I honestly would like to know them near me. Or generally not with other people. I would suggest you take a picture, but I'm ... afraid. If those things came back with such a ship, they might be intelligent. I don’t want them to find me because I said something that I was not allowed to say." She grimaced and looked somewhat caught.

"I'm sorry," she added.

Steve touched the back of his head and Natasha stiffened her shoulders. Tony also raised his eyebrows in irritation. He did not expect that. The pictures would be useful for further analysis of the creatures and perhaps give information about their origin.

"If you can think of anything about these creatures, please contact this address," Steve explained, handing her a card. This conversation was over, the woman could not tell them anymore. She nodded as she looked at the map and stood up, Tony doing it to her.

His rib was tugging and he could not resist a small grimace that said he was hurting again.

Slowly, Natasha went forward and Tony followed her to the door. Again, the stale smell of the stairwell fell into Tony's nose as the woman opened the door, and while they were putting on their jackets, Lopez held out a blue T-shirt to Steve.

"It may not be the right situation, but could you please give me a signature? It has always been my desire to meet you once since I was born. Only if you don’t mind."

Steve chuckled and signed with a pen the woman had given him. "Thanks for your information."

"If I can remember something more, I'll get in touch. But please, don’t show my name anywhere. And please," she added before closing the door, "find these monsters and make them disappear."

 

Going down the stairs was easier than going up, but still, Tony's ribs burned after the three floors. But only when they closed the front door did he allow himself to breathe properly. The fresh air was good for his lungs. With his hands, he groped for his smartphone, while Natasha wrote to the driver.

"So, we have a lot of information, but no real material to study," Steve explained, barely holding back the disappointment in his voice. "And, _We're smarter than we used to be_? Are we, Tones ... Tony?" he corrected himself, pausing. Tony shook his head in confusion, it felt like it had been ages since anyone called him Tones. The last person was Steve - more than three months ago.

His breathing slowed before he regained control. "We are. Here," he said, showing Steve and Natasha his cell phone. He tried to cover the situation. "I filmed the conversation. Love to the technology of modern times and a good eye for the design!"

He waved his glasses around to show where the camera was hidden. "So, we have all the images in Ultra-HD ready for analysis."

Natasha and Steve both could not help grinning. "I suppose Friday is already analysing?" The soldier asked and Tony nodded in response.

"Has been in the process of finding out what was nearby that clearing since the conversation. Where the things could come from and where they could have gone. Except for Toms River, of course."

"You're damn good, Stark," Natasha grinned.

It was only when the car drove up that the grin went out and the three got in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!   
> I'd really love to read what you all think of that chapter. I enjoyed writing it. And I'd love to just hear something from you. Criticism or just the things you liked. I can't correct grammar mistakes or fix plotholes or whatever if you don't write. And it's also kind of sad to write that much and getting like no response to all of it. So, yeah. I'd love to read something from you.
> 
> I hope you all survived Thanksgiving. We don't celebrate it here but I heard it's a lot of stress. So, I hope you all are still here with us.
> 
> I wish you a nice weekend!


	15. Chapter 15

Their footsteps echoed in the garage as the three got out and headed for the entrance to the building.

"What are you going to do now?" Steve asked Tony.

"Analyse the photos. What did you think?"

"You have to take a break, Tony. Your therapy will start this evening!"

The inventor turned to Steve and Natasha, who both had their arms crossed. Both of them slept in the car and Tony also had his eyes closed for a moment, although his brain was constantly working.

"I know. And that’s why I have to hurry now to get down so I can start the analysis before the therapy starts. And the therapy does not last too long, anyway."

"Tony, Steve is right, you-"

"If I know something more about the photos, I'll tell you. What are you doing now?"

"I'll try to reach Lang and Wilson," Natasha said, sighing. "We have no contact to them since last night now. SHIELD is working on it, but I'll try it through other ways."

"No more contact?" Tony asked, shocked. "Why are you saying that just now? I'll take care of it."

"Can I help you somehow, Tony?" Steve asked. Tony's lips drew up in a tormented laugh and he rolled his eyes.

"If you can go through the widths of the internet and break through some firewalls, so we can reach them? Or if you can continue to build my suit?"

Steve sighed. "I can help with the photos. I was in Europe, not in Norway, but maybe I can help anyway."

Tony was about to say no, he did not feel like spending more time with Steve, and the fact that the soldier was in Europe more than seventy years ago would not help him, but Natasha stared warningly at him. She was probably right. Probably Steve and he would have to return to a reasonably professional base, even though it could not be like it used to be. But the others needed them both as the people to hold on. Or at least they needed Steve and then Tony's ideas and resources, and Steve got that faster when he worked with him. And worked well.

He shrugged his shoulders. "But be quiet when I work. I’ll have to concentrate."

 

Tony winced when Steve said his name two hours later.

"You have to go up, the therapy will start right away."

The whole time they had been working side by side in silence. Both knew that that was not the purpose of Steve's stay in the workshop, but they had nothing to say to each other. Or they had too much to talk about.

Tony had begun to build his suit after Friday assured him that she would initiate some ways to establish contact with Lang and Wilson. The new one obviously had a really good equipment, otherwise, he would not have been able to change sizes at the airport, and Wilson was definitely equipped with his resources, so Tony was a bit startled that the contact had been broken off. But it was not his priority, because they were both heroes and in a group with some well-trained agents.

Tony told himself that everyone was fine because he had other problems to deal with. His new suit caused him problems in some places. A lighting feature did not really work. A small matter, but if one thing did not work, there would be problems elsewhere, so he had the suit scanned again, so he could deal with it again after the therapy.

Steve had been watching the photos on different screens all the time, trying to figure out where these creatures came from, using the files and what they knew. He had read quite a few reports.

Only once had the silence been broken.

"Cap? Stark?" Clint had asked via the intercom.

Steve had flinched and Tony had grinned before answering to the Avenger. "We can hear you."

"How are you doing? Natasha said you are analysing the photos?"

"We haven’t got much. We can only guess approximately where the things came from. And the British poet William Julius Mickle once mentioned in a letter an alien that he described in a similar way to the monsters. Maybe they were not here for the first time, but we don’t know anything else," Steve said with a slight frustration in his voice. "Do you have any news from Scott and Sam?"

"That's why I get in touch. We have received a signal, albeit weak. It came from an area east of Trondheim, Norway, but it came over several corners to us and was sent off days ago. We don’t know where they are now, but I can send you what we have. Maybe that's the same as what you know."

There was a brief silence in the lab as the two waited for the message to be sent to them. Steve got up and walked over to Tony with his arms crossed, looking at the screen. A video opened on the monitor. Tony sat upright and Steve leaned forward a bit to see more. It was dark, you could hardly see anything on the screen. Some cluttered images shot across the black area, then suddenly the sound switched on. Dull and distorted, one could hear a deep voice saying "test, test".

"It works," Tony heard another voice talking. "Hello? Hello!" the same voice asked, and you could hear someone knocking on a microphone.

"Friday, can you see anything on the video?" Tony asked the AI. He leaned further forward.

"Shit," said a voice in the video. "You can’t see anything. It's too dark," the man had apparently turned his head because the voice had become quieter. For a long time the sentence echoed and also the steps of the persons could be heard. "Here is Samuel Wilson, Avenger and on behalf of SHIELD in Norway. This is a distress signal. I repeat, a distress signal."

It was quiet for a moment, the whole sound was gone and Steve and Tony exchanged a worried look. Then a jangle sounded again and a loud noise came from the loudspeakers that made the two men wince. "- lost. I repeat, we lost Agent James Corton. We had no chance to save him, but we know the position of his corpse."

Wilson's voice sounded resigned and frustrated before continuing. "We were surprised by a storm and a cold snap and then attacked by unknown soldiers. All signals have gone down so far, Agent Anne Miller is badly injured, but we no longer have any medical aid packages. I repeat, we have no-" the sound broke off again and for a few seconds nothing was to be heard. The camera seemed to have stopped because the different tones of blacks no longer moved over the screen as they did before.

"Shit," Tony swore and he also clearly felt the tension of Steve behind him. Suddenly the picture moved again and a bright light opened. The camera took a moment to adjust to the new lighting conditions before one could see that Scott Lang was holding a match in his fingers. They were still in their suits, which was once a good signal, but then Tony saw why the light was turned on. The camera was held on a young woman whose nose was obviously suffering from severe frostbite. She had scratches all over her face but slowly raised her arm. A wound had been provisionally attached to a blood-soaked cloth, but Tony could guess what it would look like underneath. Steve passed his hand over his head. As a former soldier, he had already seen enough of such injuries and knew that in the cold and without aids such a huge wound on the forearm could quickly be life-threatening.

Then the sound came back. "- help with these injuries," Wilson finished. The camera wobbled. You could see that there were three other agents in the cave besides Lang, Wilson, and Mrs Anne Miller.  The cave looked much more like a long corridor. Then the light went out and the picture became black again.

"We are east of Trondheim, the information from the boy brought us here. We were in a valley that has no name. About three hours east of the city. As a small river flows through, which comes exactly from a mountain. The valley was still large, and there was much of a slimy liquid beside the water. The creatures are said to have come from here, at least that's how the boy described it."

"Then we were surprised by a landslide," Lang said, walking next to Wilson. "And it started to hail. We were attacked immediately. We escaped into a tunnel and were persecuted. As far as we know, we were able to eliminate our opponents, but down here we have hardly any reception and the way back is spilt. We'll find our way out, but if anyone sees this, SHIELD, Captain, Stark maybe, then send help. Our position should come with the message. I repeat," he continued, but the sound disappeared again.

"Shit," Steve said now, and again Tony turned to face him. "Did you send help?" he asked Clint, who was still on the line.

"Some agents have gone to where the signal came from. There were no traces of them there. Right now the agents are in the cave. It should be a -"

He stopped because the sound of the video went on again. "And medicine. We wait for you at a safe place nearby. Over."

"It should be a tunnel system," Clint explained again. The video was closed, and Tony's plans of his suit covered the entire screen again. "But not a natural tunnel system. At least it was never known before. Nearby, there are no cabins or houses where they could be and all possible tracks were blurred by the storm. We have nothing. The signal was sent out three days ago but was received as I said only a few hours ago by SHIELD. They just sent it to us. They could be everywhere again."

"Only if they had the means," Tony said. "They had one injured and were possibly without food in this tunnel system. They were slow. With three days of runtime and a storm" - Friday had reported the weather of recent days near Trondheim - "they will not have come this far. Where exactly did the signal come from?"

"Some agents also look around, but it is more logical with the weather that the six retreated into the tunnel system. You should have the coordinates now."

Friday opened a map of Norway and a red dot pointed to a spot just southeast of the big city.

"This is where Abbie Lopez was," Steve said, pointing to a point just a few miles west of the indicated location. Tony nodded. "So, we have the origin of the critters, now all we have to do is find Wilson, Lang and the other agents. Friday," he told the AI, "would you be so kind and look for possible running routes in the area? It looks very hilly. In a storm and with injured people you don’t get anywhere that fast."

Steve touched the back of his head with his hand. "We have to assume that they have no more injured," he said quietly.

Tony turned back to face Steve. He was a bit pale around his nose but still looked determined. The soldier had fought in the war, he saw when someone was lost. The woman would not have made it another three days if she did not get help from somewhere.

"Dumm-E, bring a chair," Tony said suddenly, "that could take a while, let's not leave Steve standing around."

The soldier smiled gratefully at him, and the inventor turned back to the screen. "Also show routes over hills, Friday."

"We've already figured that out," Clint interjected. "The most likely routes are being checked by agents."

"There’s something new," a new voice suddenly announced. Tony's expression froze when he recognized the Winter Soldier who was talking.

"Oh, Bucky just came in," Clint explained. "What do you have?"

Steve cast a sidelong glance at Tony, who tried to control himself. His jaw was pressed together as he listened to the newcomer. "An agent found ammo under a fallen tree right in front of the cave entrance. It looks like SHIELD ammo."

Tony could imagine Clint staring intently at the report Barnes must have given him. Steve took a breath behind him and Tony wrinkled his nose.

"They fought? Maybe that's why they had to hide again," Steve said loudly.

"There's another problem," Barnes contradicted his long-time best friend. Tony's ribcage rose and fell. "No remains of Stark weapons were found. Wilson should have been equipped with them."

"Wilson had no cartridges with him," Tony argued more aggressive than necessary. He just wanted to go back up and beat this killer until he could not move. He had not spoken to him since the fight against Steve and him. But he knew he had to stay professional.

"But remnants of his equipment would still have to be found, especially in the puddles," the Winter Soldier retorted, his voice calm. Tony shook his head, though he knew the man was right. "Chemical changes in the water due to reactions in the weapon," the killer probably read out.

It was quiet for a moment. "So, we are not one step nearer to Sam and Scott?" Steve tried to stop the silence.

Clint denied again. "Barely. We can only hope that we find a trail. But at least we now know where the monsters came from. Based on this, we may be able to find out more about these things. About Sam, Scott and the two ... the three agents, we can only hope to find them in time."

Tony rubbed his hand over his forehead. "I let Friday check the environment again. Who saw or heard something? Who knows places where someone could hide? Maybe there is still a weak signal. I'll let her see through everything."

"And one more thing," Bucky Barnes said before Tony could hang up. “SHIELD will have a crisis meeting tomorrow with all the present Avengers and agents. Results should be exchanged, and the further acting discussed. Tomorrow, at five, all of us are expected in Stark's meeting room. And Steve,” he added, “you are being asked to stay in the quarters, again."

"Why?" asked Tony with a slight annoyance in his voice. “As far as I know he just went out jogging.”

"As long as the negotiations are not over, he shouldn’t leave the headquarters alone, that’s what I was told. It's easier to stay here."

Tony nodded and felt Steve breathing exhaustedly behind him. With him, there was an extra procedure because he was considered the leader and has given help at the outbreak. The International Court of Justice had been worried about him for days and came to no conclusion.

Shortly thereafter they had exchanged more information before Steve got back to work and Tony continued to work on his suit.

 

Now the inventor got up tired and stretched. The therapy would only take a few minutes but definitely wouldn’t feel nice. His bones should grow together within the next few days and then be hard-wearing again. The new technique was good, but definitely not pleasant.

He hobbled wordlessly to the door and turned back to Steve. "If you want something – a drink, a snack - then go to the fridge there. I’ll be back soon. Please don’t break anything. Friday, will you please stop him if he does?" he teased, watching Steve's lips twist into a smile.

"Thank you for the reminder of the time."

Slowly he walked through the door and got into the elevator. It was only when the doors closed that he laid his hand on his aching ribs with a relieved sigh. They pounded and pulled and finally, he could pull a face about it. He took a deep breath and hoped that the ride in the elevator would take a long time, but then he heard the loud beeping and the doors opened.

Tony had gone to the hospital floor, where only a few days ago he was lying in a coma. A strange feeling of tightness came over him and he grabbed his neck. He swallowed as his breathing became harder. He quickly closed his eyes to calm down. In his mind, he immediately thought of his workshop, which he now wanted to go back to. He looked around quickly. A green plant stood right next to the mirrored elevator. The light lit the wide corridor with a nice tone. It came straight from the walls and ceiling, there were no visible lamps. Tony remembered how fascinated Steve and Thor had been when they first saw those lights in the headquarters.

Tony searched for something else. He knew he had to focus on something like this during such panic attacks. His gaze went down the hall, right across the room from the elevator. Normally Natalie would sit there, a corpulent woman, but with a huge heart. Tony had once seen her son at a high school event promoting a college. The woman often spoke of her child, her precious, who was now alone in life and soon would be twenty-five. Tony had often been able to talk to Natalie over the past few months, albeit sometimes over trivial things. He had come to appreciate her very much. Now she was not there, and Tony was very grateful that she had not watched his little uprising panic attack. He did not know what it was, but with his hand, he continued to run over his neck, and his nose scratched hard.

He shook his head. Slowly he walked ahead and turned right where the therapy room was. It should begin soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos. I wish you all a nice weekend!


	16. Chapter 16

Tony had not gone back to the workshop that evening. The treatment had been more exhausting than he had anticipated, and in the end, he could just drag himself into his own room. His arm burned and the painkillers given to him did not help. Tears of pain ended up in Tony's eyes as he dropped onto his bed. His ribs hurt and felt like they squeezed his organs and jumped out of his ribcage at the same time.

He was bad, and he had a headache. The doctors had examined him very closely. A wound on his upper body had become infected and one of the nurses had given him an ointment on the open area, which then burned and twitched, but at least not as bad as the arm and the ribs. But his blood levels had not improved and it should be re-examined.

Tony had told Friday that she should tell Steve that he would not come down again. After that, he had piled a pillow over his sweaty face and tried to fall asleep without worrying about getting rid of his clothes.

Barely ten minutes later, there had been a knock on his door and Rhodey had run in and leaned carefully against the door.

"Are you alright?" he had asked, without being able to hide the concern in his voice. "Steve said you didn’t come down?"

Tony could only make a tired grunt. He was drained, but his brain was still downstairs, by his suit. The scan must have been finished by now and he could keep working, he knew that, but he had no strength.

"The therapy," he explained curtly.

"Do you need anything else? Something to eat or drink? A bedtime story?"

Tony let out a breath of amusement, shaking his head under the pillow. For a moment, both stopped, and the inventor could practically feel the piercing gaze of his friend on him.

"Although," Tony finally said. "Can you take off my shoes? I’m too tired."

He heard his friend sniffing in disbelief, then rushed up to him.

"If I'd been told that one day, I’d take Tony Stark's shoes off, maybe I'd have considered that with my career." Tony felt his friend take off his shoes nevertheless and let out a relieved breath. It was so pleasant.

"You liked it," he grinned under the pillow.

"Oh, yeah, there is nothing I’d rather do right now."

"That's what I'm saying."

Rhodey laughed. "Now go to sleep. You heard about the meeting tomorrow?"

"Yeah. At least it's progressing now."

"Hopefully," Rhodey replied. "See you tomorrow, Tony."

 

It took Tony more than an hour to finally fall asleep. Only gradually did the drugs start to work. He rarely slept for two hours at a stretch during the night, because pain and exhaustion were so mixed up that he had nightmares and woke up sweat-drenched.

When he finally gave up his night's sleep, it was just before seven in the morning. The whole tower was still quiet, only sporadically could the mechanic see agents running in the big park. He was not hungry himself, but the pain began to fade away. Quickly he swallowed another tablet, foreseeing that this condition would not last long. At five o'clock he would have to go to the meeting, and until then he had a lot to do. With the elevator, he drove to his workshop, entered the codes and entered his own area.

"What do you say about the armor, Friday?" he turned to the AI.

"The scan didn’t show much more mistakes. A cord on the neck joint is loose, but it's in an open position so that you can fix it quickly," she replied. Tony hobbled to his chair and ordered Dum-E to bring the suit to him.

"And a coffee," he added after the little robot had left. "But only after that. And is there anything new from Lang, Wilson and the four agents?" Tony asked, disturbing the silence of the workshop. Only Dum-E’s humming was heard.

"Nothing official, sir. I can try to get internal data, but I am sure that you would have been informed if SHIELD had known something more."

"Just take a look," Tony replied. "And turn on music, please!"

 

After several hours his concentrated work was interrupted when someone knocked on the glass door of the lab. Friday pointed him out; Tony was so engrossed in his suit that he had not noticed. Steve was behind the glass.

Annoyed, but at the same time surprised, the mechanic blew out air.

"Let him in," he told the AI. The door opened and the soldier entered the room.

"How long have you been down here?"

"Good morning to you, too," Tony replied and looked up from his work briefly. Steve had running clothes and wet hair. "Have to stay in shape?"

"I had trained with a couple of agents. Friday said you haven’t eaten anything since yesterday's lunch?"

"Please don’t say you bring me something now. And I ate something!" Dum-E had brought him a banana a few hours ago after his stomach began to make uncomfortable sounds. But he could not take the time to eat something decent. Obviously, some Avengers had been attacked, and what happened in Norway could easily come to the US. His suit had to be ready.

"I'm not here to bring you something to eat," Steve walked over to Tony and leaned against a table a few feet from the man. He studied his teammate. "The therapy was painful?"

"No, it’s just bones that will be reassembled within a few days, it’s nothing, Steve, you know? Of course, it was," Tony replied with an annoyed undertone before returning to his suit, which would soon be ready. Steve was silent and Tony did not care. At least the others would think that they had more to do with each other again. That was more than no development.

"Why are you here?" Tony asked eventually when the piercing look of Steve began to worry him. He did not understand. He wanted so much more to do with the soldier, and he also knew that neither he, nor Barnes could be blamed for anything that had happened to his parents, or that Steve had opted in the agreement what he felt was right, but still. He became restless under the eyes and felt uncomfortable.

"I wanted to ask you what kind of pizza you wanted,” Steve finally said. “Bucky wanted to order some. We just didn’t know what you wanted anymore."

"You wanted - what?" Tony ran a hand over his eyes. He worked the whole day off and the others thought about pizza and even took his time.

"Why didn’t you ask about Friday? You could’ve saved time doing whatever you're doing," Tony murmured to himself rather than to Steve, but the soldier understood anyway.

"I wanted to see how you're doing," he replied, watching Tony stiffen. Of course, he wanted that. Because he was as interested as he was three months ago in Siberia. Tony snorted briefly before letting his head hang down.

"Where do you order from? Freddy?" Steve nodded before Tony told him his strain.

 

Tony had barely touched his pizza when the alarm rang. The pizza was cold by now, but the fat had disturbed his work and, in addition, his hunger had flown away relatively quickly, after Rhodey had given him not only lunch but also a terrible tincture, which he had to eat according to the doctors. It was now close to five, the meeting was scheduled to start in less than ten minutes.

"Friday, check the suit again, I have to go upstairs. I want to have all the bugs fixed, I don’t feel like another cave and an explosion in the air ..."

He took a small piece of his pizza while he dragged himself to the exit. His ribs burned again, the medication he had taken for the pain had to start working in a couple of minutes.

He was not surprised that when the elevator doors to the conference room opened, he saw a lot of faces.

"Friday, what time is it?" he asked the AI loudly, as each had turned to him.

"It's one minute to five, boss,” she replied.

Tony clapped his hands and ran as best he could, without showing his pain, to the big table in the middle of the room.

"On time I would say. Then we can start immediately?"

There was an empty chair almost at the end of the table. Only when he had sat down someone else moved.

He glanced around while Nick Fury got up and projected a picture into the center of the room with a remote control. The table was full of agents and the Avengers that were in town. Rhodey was sitting right beside him, and on the narrow side of the table to Tony's right sat Natasha, whose eyes seemed not only to watch the image in the middle of the room but at the same time Tony. Fury's chair was the one in the middle of the narrow side and next to him sat Maria Hill. Opposite Tony sat Steve, who had changed since Tony saw him for the last time. He seemed more professional now. Barnes and Wanda Maximoff were sitting next to him, both looked spellbound at the picture in the middle of the room.

Clint and Vision were placed next to Rhodey, followed by agents. Tony had seen some of them before, but many were new to him. He could call only a few of them by name. He quickly tried to focus on Fury. The man had hitherto given a brief welcome and summed up the reason why they gathered here. Tony tried to concentrate on it. Surprisingly, he felt a bit uncomfortable with so many different people in the room. His eyes fell on Barnes, who was still staring at the projection, then steered it on to Steve. The soldier looked at him as a tightness settled over his chest again. He felt his throat scratching and felt less air reaching his lungs. He coughed and tried to get rid of the feeling. Fury did not stop in his explanation, but Steve's eyes grew more inquiring as Tony once again put his hand over his mouth and coughed.

He saw Vision turn to him and examine him analytically.

"Stark?" asked Fury and all eyes turned to him. Once again, Tony coughed, the cramping feeling barely vanishing from his throat.

 "You can enlighten us about the information you and Mr Rogers have gathered, and what we know about Wilson, Lang, Miller, Smith, Dragenbach and Khatib." Fury had meanwhile returned to his seat and sat down. Tears came to Tony's eyes, but he was glad he could stand now. Once again, he coughed and then cleared his throat. Rhodey pushed a water down to him.

"We have," he said, and with the words, the tightness in his throat and lungs slowly resolved, "roughly determined the position from where the things came. East of Trondheim, we could make out the origin through two independent sources. The creatures must have run south and probably run there on a river into the airships. We can assume that years ago a larger herd took this route, or perhaps the same one that fought over Toms River. These beings are not the creation of science, because hundreds of years ago these things were probably seen, too. So, we have to assume that this is alien life."

Tony looked at the faces of his audience. Some of the agents wrote down information, others stared at him and listened attentively. Vision had moved his chair backwards and Wanda was playing with her hands on a chain. Rhodey looked at him worriedly, and Fury slowly tapped his fingers on the table. His grumpy expression was still on him, and his uninjured eye pierced Tony.

"The beings are only vulnerable in a few places," he summarized the information he and SHIELD had collected about the aliens. The projected image in the center of the room represented one of the aliens. "There, there and at all the other marked spots."

Tony pointed to the neck and shoulders, but none of the agents seemed surprised. This information had not left the security wing, but the agents were not stupid. Video footage had shown them where the creatures were vulnerable.

"The brain was so damaged that we could not analyse its functioning. But if more of these beings emerge, the top priority must be to eliminate the leader," he continued. He looked at the persons next to him. Nobody seemed particularly surprised, Vision even nodded affirmatively. Barnes looked at Tony for barely more than a second before crossing his eyes and he turned away, whispering something to Steve.

He sat down again.

"The chemical composition of these creatures will be of little interest to you all. I can only say that there are some substances that naturally do not exist in our solar system."

Without giving up the silence, Fury knocked on the table.

"Agent Harper," he said to a young man, two seats away from Maximoff. "You have more information."

The man was at most twenty-four. His brown hair was cropped and testified to military training. The athletic agent stood up.

"Yes, sir," he said in a loud voice. "The means of transport must have flown from the northeast through the Atlantic. But by national security conditions, it must have been seen from New York City, sir. Camouflage devices were found on the ship, but not strong enough for the radar. So, we're dealing with an enemy in our security agencies. This fits in with the information we have about alien and human collaboration. There must be a group of at least two people behind this attack. Probably more, sir."

The man paused to let his words take effect. _Probably dozens of people deliberately endangered a huge city like Philadelphia_ , Tony thought, shaking his head.

The agent began to speak as the hologram in the center of the room suddenly dissolved.

"Friday," Tony said loudly, "we still need that."

"Excuse me for being late," another voice suddenly answered. Frowning, Tony looked at Fury. He had an agent join the high-security meeting via the internet?

"Stark's AI did not let me through," the voice with the British accent continued. A picture rebuilt and two agents jumped and drew their weapons, ready to defend. "Quiet, calm," the Briton laughed. Only the mouth with a white well-groomed beard was visible. He was smiling and straight, white teeth were flashing. "I just want to have a say as well."

"Stark?" Fury asked. If he was surprised, he did not show it. Rather, he sounded annoyed at the interruption. Tony just shrugged his shoulders in amazement. "Friday?" he asked again, but the AI did not answer.

"Oh, right, Friday," the man whispered in a deep voice. "I put her to sleep briefly. Nobody should be aware of this information here. Even though it's not much, I have to admit."

By now almost all the people had gotten up. Agents went to the doors, holding their weapons ready, Natasha had run to the big window and looked out. Vision stood in wonderment in the room and was pulled by Wanda to the side and Barnes looked petrified on the hologram while Steve had run to Tony. He quickly typed on his cell phone.

"Who is this? Did you get him off the line?" the soldier asked, leaving room to Fury to hear what Tony had to say.

"If I got him out, he wouldn’t be here anymore," Tony blurted, sounding more aggressive than it should.

"Friday?" he tried again, but still the AI made no sound.

"Please excuse my manners," the stranger suddenly said loudly. "I did not want to interrupt the session. Please, sit down again. Agent Harper, you were just about to report on the traitor. Please, go ahead."

Tony stared dumbfounded at the mouth, which seemed to sneer in the middle of the room. How did the man know that? Fury stared dumbfounded at the mechanic. He had been able to bypass the safety precautions and nobody had noticed anything.

None of the agents and Avengers in the room moved.

"Okay,” the man spoke again, slowly. “So, let me tell you."

Fury moved his hand frantically, motioning some agents to locate the source of the signal. Tony was still typing on his phone, trying to save what he could save.

"Do not bother tracking. That makes no sense. Where were we? Right. The traitor. Henry Anderson, handsome young guy. Had a great career before him as a computer scientist. Unfortunately, he is young and needs money, too bad. He is hardly to blame, he had to pay for his mother's surgery. She was injured years ago on her vacation in Washington, DC. Due to a helicarrier, she had badly injured her legs. Has been sitting in a wheelchair with the money ever since, which Henry's little brother is no longer using for college. The poor had to drop out of school and now wait for a bad apartment in Kansas City. But that doesn’t interest you, does it?"

Tony's eyes were on Steve, who was staring at the ground. Bucky leaned back in his chair, eyes darting to Steve, before examining his hands again. Neither said anything. Fury's face had become even harder.

"What do you want?"

"At least not what I've achieved. Sit down, please." Tony coughed as his chest tightened and er scratched his neck. He reached out to his chest with his hand, where the Arc reactor used to be. Steve stared at him again in horror and raised his hand to pat him on the back, but Tony shook his head coughing.

"The boy isn’t in interest for you. Nothing happened, there were no injured civilians in this attack. What's important is what those aliens were and whether they could come back," the man continued. Tony thought it was scary just to see the man’s mouth.

"Show yourself," he called into the brief pause the stranger put in. "We all know you no longer need braces."

The man smiled. "Please, please. Don’t be so rude. I would like to – my bloody goodness, someone please bring the man cough medicine," he interrupted himself. Tony tried to suppress the new coughing attack, but tears only pressed into his eyes, he vigorously tried to wink away. Steve was already slapping him on the back, but nothing eased in his lungs.

"Right, we were talking about the aliens. Your information about them is really bad. Maybe the six agents from Norway would know more. Too bad that contact with them is no longer intact. I’m actually sure they would know something more."

Tony felt all the people in the room get more attentive and exchange worried looks. He reached for Steve's shoulder with his hand so as not to fall over. The soldier handed him the glass of water Rhodey had given him earlier. After he drank, it got a little better with his coughing.

"Do I know where the six are?" the stranger continued. By now, the British accent annoyed Tony immensely. "That's probably the question you all ask yourself. Well, it is to be expected. You all must be sick with worry. After all, agents are missing, and much worse, Avengers. Yes, I know where the five are."

Steve let out a slow breath and two agents pulled a short face. _Where the_ five _are_. Tony thought of the woman who had given her life.

"They are safe with me."

"And can you tell us where?" one of the agents asked. Agent Riggs, Tony thought. He could remember the scarred face.

"With me, I told you," the man replied and smiled. Tony wanted to puke. That perfect smile made him aggressive. "Oh, Stark, it's almost Roger's birthday. I hope you already have a present?"

Tony exchanged a confused look with his teammate for the sudden change of topic.

"What do you want?" Fury asked again. "Friday!" he turned to the AI this time. She still did not react.

"I definitely have one for you," the stranger ignored the interruption, "after all, you did not get a present for your birthday because of ... well, the little conflict. But you must know, I like to give things. Surely nobody has congratulated you afterwards? Rhodes was eating with you, I know that. And Vision cooked something the next day. It tasted terrible, I've heard, but he had tried at least. But not more, right? Neither Rogers, nor Barton, nor Maximoff, nor anyone else. That doesn’t have to be. Ah, someone's getting nervous," the mouth moved slightly in the direction of one of the agents quietly saying something to another.

"I am very glad that my birthday is important to you, but -"

"One moment, please, yes? I need to show you what happens if any of you become inattentive." The image of the mouth disappeared and another, to Tony only too familiar image opened. "I give them something to pay attention to. A friend gave me the video. I recently helped him out of jail."

Tony felt his mouth open. He knew exactly which friend the man meant. The video showed the street where his parents had died. He felt Steve reach for his arm and hold him gently. He did not resist. Barnes sat petrified in the chair, then slowly turned to Tony. He shook his head. He did not want to watch the video again, and he saw that Barnes thought similarly.

"Friday," Tony said again, this time slowly. "Turn this off."

"Tony," Rhodey whispered behind him. "The date."

Tony did not even have to look for the numbers standing in the corner. Sixteenth of December 1991, of course, his friend recognized this date. And Natasha also seemed to understand. Vision told Wanda something and she held her hand over her mouth in alarm. Fury put his hands on the table. Not even Tony had told him about the video. At that moment, the car crashed into the tree and the inventor flinched. Steve's grip tightened slightly, but it did not hurt.

"Oh, Helmut. That made everything easier," whispered the stranger's voice, chasing goosebumps over Tony's back. Barnes got up and obviously did not know where to go with himself. In the video, you could now see the motorcycle that was holding next to the car. The Winter Soldier was barely visible, but Tony knew that would change in the next few seconds. Then he heard the suppressed cry of an agent and Maximoff. They had recognized Barnes. Immediately, weapons were lifted from all directions in the room and aimed at the man who could only hold his hands in the air with his eyes wide open. His expression spoke volumes. The agony of seeing the video again.

Pepper had often told Tony that Barnes had been brainwashed, which had helped him accept that the man was still alive, but not to like him more. If she was not in China because of Stark Industries, she would probably stand next to him and say the same thing right now.

For the first time, Tony saw that Barnes was ashamed. He was ashamed of what he had done as Winter Soldier.

"Guns down," Tony heard himself say. "It wasn’t him."

That's when Howard died. None of the agents moved.

"Weapons down," Tony repeated, angrily. His eyes fixed one of the young agents so he would not have to see what was happening in the video next. But it was like an accident, he had to look. The car blocked something of the view, but he could still see his mother wrestling for her life. Treacherous tears crept into his eyes and he wiped them away with his hand, which Steve did not hold. The soldier moved closer to Tony, showing him proximity. Tony's mother died and Barnes looked at Tony almost imploringly. _Forgive me_.

"Well, now I should hopefully have your attention now. Yes, crazy, who is working in your own ranks."

The mouth stepped back to where the car was just visible. "I'm actually surprised that none of you knew that. I thought my sources were just not good enough. Nice to know that it was different. Congratulations, Stark, Rogers, Barnes, you have kept a secret quite well. I think I can tell you another secret now."

The mouth went a little closer to the camera as if leaning forward. "Wilson, Smith, Lang, Dragenbach and Khatib are my gift to you, Stark. You must know, my son's birthday is in six days. Thirty is such a round number. There is not a single track in the number, not a single straight line. When my son last wished something, he was six. It's hard to make presents when you have not heard anything more from your child for so long. In twenty-four years, they change so much, too. But one thing remains the same for me. A dead child does not just want flowers, it also wants revenge."

Tony felt the grip on his arm loosen slightly as Steve processed the information. Tony's mouth opened again. The son of the man had died twenty-four years ago.

"A grenade had landed right on the street, just to the right of my son's door,” the man explained and his voice grew dangerously low. “The street was full, and he slept. We had no chance to escape. But do you know what I have seen? At this moment, which seemed to take years? When you know it's over and everything is running in slow motion? I saw the outside mirror and read the engraving on the grenade. _Stark Industries_."

He spit out the name of the company as if it was poison. Tony's blood rushed into his ears. He did not sell weapons anymore and for a good reason. It's been a long time since he set his company on a new course. But not twenty-four years. His tongue felt thick and furry when he wanted to say something.

"Now you are quiet, Stark. Now, like twenty-four years ago. Eighteen dead in the city. Seven of them were not yet grown-up, all proven by a grenade by Stark Industries, and you did not even get a mandatory bereavement letter you just had to sign. Nothing. Nothing at all. Only more weapons, only more deaths in the streets, year after year."

The man’s voice grew louder and Tony listened in disbelieve.

"But now _I_ have the weapons," the man whispered suddenly. The mouth disappeared and a picture of a clearing appeared. Behind some trees, one could see the ocean faintly. The sun cast some shadows on the ground. Five people sat there. Tony recognized Wilson immediately. He had seen the three agents next to him before, too. The other man had to be the Ant-Man. The five wore only scraps of what once could have been clothes. In the room, some people were moving restlessly. The five of them were kneeling on the muddy ground, looking closely into the camera with their faces drawn in battle.

"I have my shield and my weapon," the man continued. "I want you, Stark, with me. Otherwise, this agent will experience exactly the same as my family had. You know what? I had two children and a wife. We were four. Here are five agents. Helmut, please."

It took barely half a second before a person reacted behind the camera. It was apparently a live broadcast because the man answered something with a German accent and then you heard the shot. He echoed loudly in the conference room. The agent Smith fell backwards. The other four jumped and shouted something that none of the viewers could understand.

"I want you with me as a gift for my son. He will be thirty years in six days. I expect you here or your friends meet my children in heaven.”

Again, the mouth took the place of the video.

"And I've never worn braces," the man said, leaning forward. The last thing Tony and the others could see before the transfer stopped was the face of a man who had lost his whole family.

The ice-blue eyes still floated in front of Tony's face, seconds after the image had disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!   
> There was no way I could cut this chapter, so this is nearly 5000 words long. Yey. 
> 
> I would love to know what you think of this chapter. Not getting any feedback at all is kind of depressing. It also doesn't really help to improve the story. So, I'd really like to read something from you all.
> 
> Also; have you seen the Avengers 4 trailer? I mean, wow. I'm kinda scared. Man. I cannot wait for that movie. 
> 
> So, I wish you all a wonderful weekend!


	17. Chapter 17

Everything was quiet for a moment. Then the agents responded professionally. Several of them already ran out of the room before Fury could even scream after them.

"Agent McKinnes, your department starts searching for the source of the video immediately. Agent Malbour, you make sure none of that information leaves the room, Agent Kinsley, you must-"

Tony did not hear him anymore. Steve's hand was still on his arm, not letting off of him as he stared at the spot where the man had just shown himself. He was fifty, at most sixty years old, and looked well-groomed. And he had threatened him, with the death of other men.

"Stark, is Friday working again?" Fury turned to him. Now he looked angry and obviously tried not to shout completely. Tony was torn from his stupor. Quickly he looked at his cell phone, on which the small symbol in the upper corner shone again. He nodded. "She's back."

"Then make sure that no information leaves the quarter from her. Turn her off in this room and in the SHIELD department as well. We have a security hole and it needs to be closed."

Tony could not help it. He was reluctant to shut down his AI, but Fury was right: Friday was obviously a security hole, and on such a controversial issue, they could not afford more mistakes. Tony reacted as if in a trance, but his thoughts went back to the video. How did this person know all this? How did he get into his system? Why was it about him and how was he supposed to know where he would have to appear in six days?

The questions buzzed through his mind and found no answers, while a much worse idea occurred: _Agent Smith died at his expense and the four other agents will not fare otherwise if he doesn’t do something._ Again, after New York, after Sokovia, after all those places, people have died because of him.

"We can handle that, Tony," he heard Rhodey's voice close to his ear. He had not noticed that his friend had run to him. Rhodey's hand squeezed his shoulder, but he said nothing. He just nodded, trying to regain his composure. It was not the time to sink in self-pity. Not in front of all the people. His gaze shifted to Barnes, who was still standing motionless in the room.

"I said guns down," Tony said to an agent who was still on alert.

"I'm sorry, sir, that's not what you decide. Fury?"

The man was talking to agents again and tapping his watch before turning and staring at Barnes. "Rogers, Stark, you knew about that?"

He looked at the two with a stunned expression. Steve was a little closer now, his hand still clutching Tony's arm. The other Avengers also came closer, they needed to know what had happened. Tony could practically see the disappointment in Natasha's eyes, that he had never told her this. Rhodey's hand was sweating on Tony's shoulder.

"How did you get the idea that you should keep this to yourself? For three months have you been living with agents since then, and you didn’t say shit? Almost every week, you fucking saw me. That was not only dangerous but stupid as well. We were unprepared. How do we look to this man now?"

Towards the end, Fury had become very loud and pointed with his hand to the place where the hologram had just been standing.

"Barnes, do you have any more to tell us?"

"He was brainwashed!" Steve intervened. Tony could clearly feel that his teammate was getting more restless. "You knew he killed people. But what you saw there wasn’t him! Not willingly."

Fury turned his gaze to Tony, who at first could only look at Barnes. He did not know why, but he nodded. "Ask him what you want. But we need him."

Rhodey stiffened slightly behind him and Steve gave him a questioning look. Then Tony straightened his shoulders. "Friday is turned off in here."

"Was she the security leak?" Natasha asked. Her eyes had been wandering attentively all over the faces of everyone in the room.

Tony looked at her. "I don’t know. Without authorized access, it's nearly impossible to turn her off, let alone to get that kind of private information."

“ _Nearly_ or is it _really_ impossible?" asked Clint.

"Obviously not." Tony looked irritated. "Otherwise the man wouldn’t have gotten through."

_Unless someone has confirmed access_. Tony investigated the faces of the others. Steve's eyes were on Barnes, who was still some feet away from them. Natasha and Clint looked around attentively. _They are also looking for a mole._ Vision had closed his eyes, he was already thinking, maybe looking for ways to find the man. Wanda was still staring at the Winter Soldier.

"Bring him up for questioning and then quickly back when everything is clean," Fury said, addressing two agents who immediately took Barnes with them. The man struggled briefly as the two agents grabbed him by the elbow, then let it pass over him.

"I think you all have something to do. I'll talk to you all again tomorrow. Stay alert and watch out for information." Fury threw one more penetrating look at the Avengers before storming out of the room to do tasks that would cost him whole nights.

"I'm going downstairs," Tony pressed between his teeth. He had to get out of this room. _Someone out there wanted to see me dead_.

"I have to go through the video with Friday."

_This person had just killed an agent just to show that he was serious._

"The face was familiar to me."

_I have to find him first, before the agents come up with plans that make the whole situation worse_.

"And I think Friday has some good ideas, but here she’s turned off."

_What if she was the leak?_

Tony turned away from the others without awaiting an answer. He expected the others to hold him back to find solutions together, but he wanted to avoid that. He quickly ran to the elevator, looking straight ahead. But nobody said anything, the others let him go. Lost in their own thoughts and struggling with their own horror, the Avengers stayed in the room.

Tony's anxiety did not fade as the silence of the narrow elevator overcame him. His thoughts raced as he could concentrate on nothing and his hands began to tremble. His legs became weaker and he leaned against the mirrors. His face had turned pale and he felt himself getting worse. The ride in the elevator took him far too long before the doors finally opened. Quickly he stormed out of the narrow room, typed in the required passwords to enter the lab, and did not even close the frosted glass door as he stormed into the hall. Dum-E looked at him in surprise, but Tony said nothing. Trembling, he dragged himself to his chair in the middle of the room and dropped onto it. For a moment everything was quiet, then he slammed his hand against the table, which made it clank. He cried out loud.

His hand burned as he held it in front of his eyes - as he felt the urge to cry. Still, they trembled uncontrollably and again he hit hard on the table. Something fell down, but he did not care. His chest was racing and he could not think clearly.

_Everyone knew about his parents. Someone wanted to kill him. His parents wanted to kill him? The agent was murdered by a psychopath. It was his fault. The death of his parents was his fault. No, it was the Winter Soldier. Was the Winter Soldier the psychopath? More people were in danger. Agents. Maybe Pepper? Avengers._

_Avengers. Vision, Natasha, Rhodey._

_Steve?_

_Was Steve in danger? Was he in danger because of him?_

He got up so suddenly that the chair fell backwards. He kicked his leg against the table, almost breaking the glass. Head down, Dum-E shoved some old Iron Man pieces of armor toward him before the robot left quickly. Tony stared at it.

_If he had acted straight after Siberia, would it even be that way right now_? Tony picked up a piece of a broken armor and threw it to the ground. The hall of the metal echoed through the workshop. _That doesn’t matter anymore_. "Stay calm, stay calm."

The place. Tony needed to find out where he needed to go.

"Friday, do you have any idea where the man is from?"

"Do you really want to go? Alone?"

Tony froze. Steve should not be here. Nobody should be here, the door –

"The door was not closed, I wanted to look after you." Steve tried to look strong. His shoulders were pulled back and his chest was outstretched. He ran as if he was in the military again, but Tony could tell the man was a bit paler than usual.

"What is there to look for here? I'm sure you have something to do," Tony said, his voice trembling more than he wanted.

"You're bleeding," the other replied, ignoring the mechanic. Tony looked at his hand. He did not realize he had cut himself. Slowly and carefully Steve came towards him, the door to the workshop fell softly behind him into the lock. Tony himself did not move. Just watched the other man walk up to him slowly. Tony could clearly see the soldier trying to hide the tremor in his hands. The knot in his chest threatened to take his breath away.

"It doesn’t hurt."

Dum-E came humming softly in his gripping arm, he held a bandage, which Steve took thankfully. He let out a quiet breath but clearly tried to hide it from Tony.

"Let me help you," Steve said so softly that Tony could barely hear it. The words bounced off a wall of thoughts that the man could not yet arrange. "We’ll go through this together. We are always here for you. I'm here for you."

Tony shivered as he took a step back. Steve looked forced quiet and Tony's heart throbbed faster. He could hardly think right.

"We stand here - you are _here_ for me? Where were you the last time you said that? When we didn’t see each other for three months? Where were you when my villa was blown up? Where were you after the Chitauri? Where have you been when I saw the video of Barnes?" Tony got angry, but Steve did not stop moving towards him. He hesitated for a moment and the mechanic could see that the other felt hurt, but then he slowly moved on towards him.

"Where have you been after Ultron? You knew that I was feeling bad. You knew it exactly. Where have you ever been for me?"

Tony could not back down when he bumped into a work table. The louder he screamed, the more the knot loosened in his chest, which had grown ever larger since the psychopath's appearance.

"Where have you been?" he shouted again, hoping Steve would just leave. But the man was right in front of him now.

"I wasn’t there," he admitted and could not banish the frustration from his voice. "And that was a huge mistake every time again. But Tony, this is different. I'm here now, all of us are. And you won’t have to deal with this man alone."

"Of course I’ll have to! The man knew everything about us! He has a damned spy with us and a very good one, too! Friday didn’t say anything, she works just fine! He kills agents because he wants to demonstrate his power. What if he decides to take more of you? Pepper is currently alone in China, without protection! He knows that! He knew where Wilson and the others were, he knew where Zemo was, he knows all of that!"

Tony raised his bleeding hand to his face and turned away from Steve.

"What should I do?" He quickly wiped his eyes.

"Work with us, don’t hide, Tony," the bigger one answered softly. His voice broke at the end of the sentence. "We need you and we want to protect you all, we -"

"And that's the problem!" Tony said, feeling his arm tremble now. He realized how his strength left him, how he came closer and closer to collapse.

"You can’t do it. What if it makes things worse? We've all been wrong about our last big decision and see what happened!

Four agents are in danger and I can and must prevent them from dying. And if I catch the psychopath first, that's good." _And if not, then ..._ Tony could not finish his thought, because Steve carefully pulled him to him. Tony froze as the other pulled him into a strong hug. _The first in months._

"We will find him and then make a plan together. You, me, Natasha, Rhodey, Clint, Wanda, Vision, Fury. Bucky," Steve whispered so softly that Tony had to prick his ears. Carefully, as if it could break, Steve took Tony's bleeding hand in his and slowly wrapped the bandage around. Only gradually did Tony's tug go off, and when Steve spoke again, the mechanic collapsed in his arms. "We can do it together."

 

Tony could not remember the next few minutes. When he was finally able to think straight again, he was still in the same place, only this time firmly pressed to Steve. His head had dug protectively into the other's chest, which kept jumping up and down as if suppressing a sob. And though he could not figure out how it happened, he knew he needed Steve right now. The tremor had eventually subsided, and his breathing was back to normal.

"We should leave that to ourselves before the others think you should really hand me over," Tony mumbled, sniffling and smiling at the same time, at Steve.

Steve chuckled. "Really handing you over? You didn’t plan on it?"

"Yeah, I did" Tony admitted and still did not break away from the bigger one. "But I think you convinced me." Tony paused. His thoughts circled again, but he had to pull himself together.

"I also noticed that you have never seen 'Ghostbusters'. I can’t leave you that way."

"Ghost what?" Steve asked, and Tony could clearly hear his heart pounding.

"We'll discuss that when we have the psychopath. Now we’ve got work to do," the mechanic answered. More restrained, he pushed away from the warm position and turned to his computer. "Friday, do you have something?"

He waved his hand to Dum-E for a second chair. That would be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that this is so short. I think the chapters will be longer from now on.   
> I wasn't quite sure when I wrote this whether this was way to fast with Steve being in the workshop after what had happened, and also with Tony kind of protecting Bucky, but it felt right to me in the end, so I kept it. I hope it isn't too bad for all of you. 
> 
> So, now they have to be dealing with finding that guy. Hopefully they are fast enough. 
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos! I would be over the moon if I've got some comments! That would be super nice.
> 
> I wish you all a nice weekend!


	18. Chapter 18

Over time, the conversations became less and less. Tony and Steve had both talked briefly at first, just to make sure the other one was still there, but then they sank into their work. Both watched the video – which was fortunately recorded - several times and could not tell by any programs or observations where the man was and where the other agents were being held.

Both had calmed down over time, at least externally. Tony's mind flickered, sometimes staring at his screen for several minutes, before remembering he had to keep working, and Steve also often seemed absent-minded.

In the end, they seldom asked anything and the answers were almost rarer. After a while, Friday announced that Rhodey was standing in front of the frosted glass and Tony invited him inside. His friend explained that Steve was needed again upstais, because of Barnes, and the soldier almost gasped with relief. Tony's heart poked slightly as he discovered that Steve's last few hours were probably not pleased with him. He had to admit, no matter how angry he was at the other, his presence had contributed significantly to his ability to work.

"Did you plan to go alone?" Rhodey asked, who had stayed downstairs. The door had fallen into the lock just behind Steve and since Tony had not stared after him, he had not noticed at first that his friend was still in the workshop. He had thought he was alone.

Tony just looked at his buddy but said nothing, but that was enough answer for his longtime friend. "Was he able to stop you?"

"Would I still be here, if not?"

"Good point," Rhodey answered. Tony could tell that he'd trusted him to travel the entire US without further information, hoping to find the psychopath.

"Maybe Rogers deserves some kind of award or whatever now," Rhodes muttered, but Tony could understand him. He looked up from his work.

"Because he did what you've done all these months? Come to my workshop and keep me from working?", he asked, trying to sound angry.

Rhodey blew air. "We haven’t achieved nothing, he obviously had."

He couldn’t ban the sound of relief from his voice. Tony was glad that his friend was not angry because he had concealed the matter with Barnes.

He sighed. "But in the end, I still have to meet the guy on my own, otherwise it’ll be ugly for the agents."

"But we can plan it together and look for positions for the others. You won’t _be_ alone there."

Tony could not stop rolling his eyes when he realized the gravity of the situation. Rhodey did not seem to understand him yet.

"How?" he asked him. "We damn well have a babbler among us who knows a lot. And if that's not the case, then it was Friday's fault that the psychopath knew pretty much _everything_. Then it would be too late already with your great plans!"

Tony had jumped up and pointed to the ceiling with his hand, indicating the place everyone associated with Friday. It was stupid.

"We have a huge problem and all you think about is how _I_ am going to get out of there alive."

"Because it's important!" Rhodey shouted. He had stood up and walked toward Tony. "I know you're feeling like shit. Damn it, Tony!"

The mechanic froze. Rarely had his friend said such a thing to him.

"And I know that you feel guilty for everything happening right now, even if you're trying to downplay it. But this is not because of you, nor is it just about you. It's about human life! And too many have already been destroyed. You have signed the contract so that no more innocent people have to die and now think about yourself for a damn second!"

Tony could do nothing. The words had disappeared from his mind as his friend talked so excitedly. The man could see that it was also a burden on him. A traitor and a crazy, cold-blooded murderer who had changed the whole situation within a few minutes. Not only were they looking for someone who had a connection to extra-terrestrial life, but also used it to seek revenge on someone who was a whole other person twenty years ago. Rhodey touched his forehead with his hand.

"Watch out. I'm not saying that because I want to persuade you to stay, but because I want you not to go alone, Tony. Yeah, we have a problem, a damn big, to be honest," he said, calmer this time, and kept walking toward Tony. He put his hand on the other's shoulder. "But we will _not_ solve it by freezing all in self-pity or choosing to go all alone. Or stir up hostilities that nobody wants to have."

Tony saw his eyes, which looked pleadingly at him. "It was not all because of the video, was it, Tony? Not only the video."

Stark opened his mouth to answer, but he could not. He just looked at his friend before shaking his head.

"He knew it," he whispered. "He knew it all the time and didn’t fucking tell me."

Tony remembered the moment when he thought that both the Winter Soldier and Steve had heard the sound of his breaking heart. The worst was not the video, his parents were dead anyway. The worst thing was not even that he now knew they could have survived the accident if Barnes had not been there. The worst part was that Steve knew about it, all the time, not even trying to explain himself. The worst part was when he looked Steve in the eye and knew exactly what they were telling him: _Barnes is more important than you_.

And even though Tony knew Steve might never have had thought that, but only wanted to protect his friend, it hurt the most.

"He knew it and then beat me nearly dead."

Rhodey took a deep breath. "And yet he is here again. He was the first one to go down here, he was the first of all the others to find you when you were gone, he was the first one to - "

"I know," Tony interrupted. "We have to keep looking for the psychopath."

"No, we _don’t_ have to. We’ll have time for that, too. Now we have to sort something out." Rhodey looked demanding. "Tony, we all need you here, you are important. To each of us."

The younger one looked at him silently. "But you have to trust us more. We could have helped you if you had said what happened back then, we - it doesn’t even matter," he interrupted himself and took a breath. "You have to get more involved with everyone. Steve and you, I rarely saw you say goodbye. You didn’t even look at him. Take care of him, Tony, I know that ... "

"That what?" the other asked.

"That you actually wanted him to stay down here. But if you just stay silent all the time, it doesn’t make the situation any better."

"Are we here to talk about my relationship with Rogers?" Tony snapped back. "We really have better things to do."

"No, just promise that you'll be more into it. And Tony," he added, "promise you won’t go looking for the psychopath alone. Please."

Tony stared at his friend for a few seconds. He did not want to break his promises, but in the end,  he would have to meet him alone, Tony knew that. But at least for searching him, the others would help. He nodded. "I promise," he answered softly.

Rhodey gave him a strong hug and once again the younger felt safe. Even though the feeling was different than with Steve, he felt comfortable. Then he pushed away. "We should really continue."

 

Rhodey could eventually persuade Tony to go to sleep for a few hours. Both had laid down on the couch, which was still in the lab and for a moment Tony had hoped that next to him would not be Rhodey but Steve. That the breathing next to him, which became more and more regular over time, would suit the soldier, not to Rhodey, but then he focused his thoughts again. No matter what would happen in the next few days, he should not be distracted by his feelings. He knew what he really wanted now for a few hours more than ever before, at least that's how it felt, but he could not let it happen.

He should not be distracted, because that would mean that he would make mistakes and mistakes could have life-threatening consequences.

It took more than an hour before his mind calmed down and he fell into a light sleep.

 

Dum-E woke him the next morning. Rhodey grunted unintelligibly beside him as the robotic arm of the robot stabbed into his side, but then straightened. It was just after seven in the morning but Tony felt a bit more rested when he got up. He made them both a coffee and at the urging of Rhodey, he also agreed to eat something small. He was not hungry, but he could not convince his friend otherwise.

When they went to the conference room together two hours later, the other Avengers did not look much more awake than they did. Natasha kept talking to Steve about something that neither Tony nor Rhodey could understand. Vision stood alone in front of one of the windows and looked out of it thoughtfully, while Bucky sat at the table and hit with a pen a tune on it that only he knew. Tony wordlessly sat down two seats next to the soldiers. Fury was still missing, and some agents as far as Tony could tell. Besides, Clint was not there yet, and that surprised Tony.

His eyes scanned the room, searching for information he might have forgotten since yesterday. The stranger had shown himself here, but why? From the looks of it, he could be pretty much anywhere and easily kill several agents. If he just wanted Tony, he would have an easier game, he could have simply kidnapped the mechanic.

Unless he wanted to play the psychic game. As with Zemo, who had incited the Avengers against each other, or in all the other cases that Tony had already been a part of. He sighed.

"Thanks," Barnes suddenly murmured next to him, startling Tony. He looked at him, studying the tired eyes on his face, framed by the brown hair that had been haunting Tony for months in his dreams. Barnes smiled slightly, but it did not reach his eyes. Tony nodded without saying anything, but it was enough to answer. Barnes turned away the moment the door opened, and Fury, Clint and three agents stormed into the room.

"We got another important point of the analysis a few minutes ago," he said, without further justifying the delay, let alone welcoming the attendees. The Avengers and agents still standing sat down. The chair next to Tony creaked as Steve sat down and nodded to the inventor. Tony smiled at him for a moment, then turned back to Fury, who did not bother looking for a chair.

"The video," he said, sticking a stick into a laptop, as Friday did not work here anymore, "provides a clue to the whereabouts of Helmut Zemo and Lang, Wilson, Khatib and Dragenbach. Of course, by being a live broadcast, we can rule out much of the world. It's summer in the northern hemisphere, in New York it was shortly after five at the beginning of the video."

The video opened and all agents moved a bit. Everybody had the idea of excluding places through time, that was nothing new.

"Because of the shadow lengths here," Fury continued, pointing to the screen with his hand, "we know that the people should be at about the same degree of longitude as we are."

Tony and the others nodded in approval. Nevertheless, this information did not help, the area where the missing persons could be was still too big.

"In the background of the video, we can confirm the Atlantic," he continued. "The sounds indicate that the video was filmed nearby a large body of water and this must be the Atlantic. Barton just pointed out that the plane, which you can see in the background," he pointed to a point in the sky that was barely big enough for Tony to see on the small screen, "is just starting up or landing."

Tony's eyes widened, and he saw that the other Avengers and agents who did not know about it yet, sat up. He heard Rhodey mumble something besides him and felt that Steve had sucked in air. Fury enlarged the picture with two fingers.

"JetBlue," Fury explained then the jumble of pixels that could hardly be deciphered. "An intra-American airline that flies to Boston, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and New York's Kennedy airports in the east the most."

Tony had seen this Air Line a few times but had never flown with it before, but now it drew his attention.

"How many planes were in the air at the same time?" he asked, knowing that the agents had answered exactly that question before the meeting.

"Too many for us to know anything specific," Fury replied, continuing to speak. "But we were able to exclude the two ports in Florida because of the vegetation. Flights were in every area of the US at the time, but the proximity of the water says the aircraft was probably going down or up in Boston or New York. We also could not rule out Washington, Norfolk, Baltimore, Portland and some smaller airports," he continued.

"That's too many," one of the agents interjected, and Fury stared at him.

"It would be, if we hadn’t searched any further. If the camera does not distort more than a common one, we can make out the approximate height of the plane. The shadows indicate it flies to the southeast, and by then, about eight minutes past five, only New York, Baltimore, and Boston flights are likely to leave."

There was a brief silence in the room after the presentation as the attendees processed the information. "And we can be sure of that?" Wanda finally asked, her accent stronger than usual.

Clint nodded to her. "The man wants us to find him. He knew he would leave us clues that would allow these conclusions."

Tony nodded without noticing. It was true, the man had everything planned. He must have wanted them to come to this conclusion, otherwise, he could have had the live broadcast played from another location. He wanted to test them, wanted to press them.

"He doesn’t want to give us time to plan well," Steve concluded suddenly. "He knows that we won’t let Tony go alone, so he still wants to confuse us. He wants us to have no chance to get around him."

Steve had turned quieter and looked at Tony in the end. He sniffed his nose and cleared his throat when he felt he had to cough again.

"Fine," Tony said. "Then we have three cities. And in one of them could be Zemo and the others. This doesn’t say anything about the exact whereabouts or whether we find the psychopath there. What's the plan you're all talking about here?"

"Agents are on their way to potential cities and looking around to see if they can find anything," Fury said loudly to everyone but looked at Tony, who put his arm over his mouth to cough aloud.

"That’s not answering my question."

"You all stay here, I need you all," Fury explained, pointing to the Avengers, "as soon as we have more information. We can assume that the man whose identity Agent Barton is about to provides more information about is going to send us more information."

The Avengers all nodded in agreement and looked at Clint. Tony was still trying to control the coughing fit. He needed to do something about the cold, even if he did not feel sick at all.

"James Burkwill," Clint said, and Fury tapped some files on the laptop and then showed a picture of the man. It showed him, surrounded by several security men wearing sunglasses and suits in the middle of a shopping mall. The man wore a distinctly expensive suit with one of his arms loosely hanging down. Tony shuddered when he thought it was his work in some way. The man still had dark blond hair and fewer wrinkles in the picture as far as Tony could tell. The beard was smaller than the one he had seen yesterday.

"This is the most recent picture we could find of him. He does not appear in public very often, which makes him even more interesting to the media if he breaks his principles. For more than seven years, however, nobody has shot a picture of him. From his residence in a suburb of London, he gets by private car into his private plane, practically right on the doorstep of his home in Buenos Aires, New York, Seattle, Beijing, Hong Kong and so on. Almost all over the world, he owns smaller or larger properties, meets with his clients and disappears again. Most of the time nobody knows where he is. Sometimes he starts several planes, so the press does not know where he lands.

"Excuse me," interrupted one of the agents. "But why is the press so fixated on this Burkwill?"

Clint looked at him and his eyes clearly said that he was just getting to that point. "Burkwill is the leader of a company called SafetyWorld, at least he owns that company and founded it. You've probably heard of this organization before. Ironically, they make weapons to send to exactly one party in a war. In Europe they supported Serbia, in the Middle East the rebels in Syria, in Egypt they sent arms to inhabitants of the cities. They are regularly organizers of marches against US interference in wars or support from weapons, also from European countries."

Tony had heard of this organization many times. It became a big thing less than twenty years ago when he regularly received hate news from them on how he could support the war in the middle east. He had not taken the organization seriously. After all, they did exactly the same as he did. One day, he found his whole house sprayed with graffiti when he came home after a party. He clearly attributed this damage to supporters of the organization, and then had a chat with the CEO of SafetyWorld for press purposes. Nothing came out of it. After all, he had supplied the highest bidder in the war and SafetyWorld had a strong rejection against that, which is why the relationship in the following years progressed rather bad than right. Since leaving the arms industry, Tony had seen little of them, almost ousting the company.

"They're also building wells in Africa, spotting fields or piling up schools in India, all with donations or money from their own pockets," Clint continued. "Burkwill has been behind the wheel of the organization for about twenty-three years and has really made it big. It’s always discussed if he had entered because of his children and his wife he lost."

He was silent for a moment, probably thinking of the man who had described how his son had been killed.

"His daughter and wife were killed in the same grenade attack as the six-year-old son," said Clint. "He joined the company a year later. He has not even been seen to attend therapy. His father died right between the death of his family and his joining to the company. He had inherited a considerable fortune from him. He bought shares and multiplied the money. Partially the media spoke of the miracle man. He rose so quickly into the ranks of the multiple millionaires."

Clint showed a statistic showing the man's esteemed fortune throughout his life. Tony was amazed when he saw the exponential growth. Burkwill had a good hand for money, he had to admit.

“As I said," Clint went on, "he hardly appears in public, in some cases he was suspected to be ill or even dead, but this is always revoked by reports. SafetyWorld regularly thanks him for millions of dollars of donations. And since the media hardly knows anything about him, they try to get as much as possible," Clint finished, answering the agent's question.

"Burkwill is said to have an extremely high IQ. He started playing the piano at the age of three and Cello at the age of five. When he was eight he read books that are required in college and could quote from the Bible, the Koran and the Torah. He grew up with his father in London, in Tehran and New York, sometimes they also lived in Sau Paulo or St. Petersburg. As a result, he spoke Farsi, Hebrew, Portuguese, Russian and English fluently, learned French, German and Italian at school and is now also able to speak Mandarin and Armenian as well."

Tony raised his eyebrows in surprise. He knew what it was like to grow up as a prodigy, so it surprised him all the more that he had never heard of the man. There should have been a huge craze for the boy in his childhood, especially at that time.

"That's practically everything you could find about Burkwill."

"That's a lot," Wanda replied wide-eyed, but Barton shook his head. "Hardly something usable. We don’t know where he lives, where he is, what he is able to do. If he manages a company that makes weapons among other things, then he can have a large amount of it and surprise us."

"But at least we know who we're dealing with," Tony replied, coughing again. "Then we’ll have to wait now."


	19. Chapter 19

They had to wait for a long time.

With every passing day, Tony became more restless. He stood in his workshop or had the therapy done, working alone or in private company with Rhodey or sometimes Steve on his suit or those of the other Avengers.

It made no sense for him to search for more information. The best SHIELD agents were set and Friday went on and on. But Burkwill had been careful. They could confirm the three states, but nothing more. At least the mechanic could use his arm again, and his ribs did not hurt too much anymore.

It was Thursday when the news came. Two days before the birthday, two days before the deadline had expired. The workshop was silent as the loud noise tore Tony out of his concentration. Neither Rhodey, nor Steve or Natasha or anyone else had been down here today. His teammates trained, searched or worked like him and the time to meet was short.

At first, it sounded like a noise and Tony wanted to tell Friday that she should undo the last change immediately, but then a window opened on Tony's desktop and showed a black image. Startled, he breathed.

"Friday, record that. And send it to anyone you can reach, right now!"

He pulled his chair closer to the screen and tried to calm his breathing. It was quiet in the workshop, the noise was gone. By now, all the other agents and Avengers who were in the headquarters would be able to watch the video. At least inasmuch as they were in a room where Friday worked, Tony thought ruefully. They were all probably just waiting for a sound or an image, _something_ , just like he did.

But nothing happened. Only when, after more than ten seconds, the black image slowly lightened, Tony exhaled. He did not know he had been holding his breath, but then he stopped again.

A red line slowly formed. A trace as if someone was painting with a pen. Slowly and delicately, the line swept up the black background before making a jerky swerve to the left, only to go straight back to its original lane. Tony shuddered when he realized it was a map.

"Boss, I cannot see the screen," said Friday. "The program does not let me see the window, but everywhere in the headquarters, it should be on screens. Rogers is on his way to you."

Tony froze. She could not see the screen? The road meanwhile hit quite a few danglers, but still pursued the rough north, should that really be a map. Tony reached for his cell phone to take a picture of the card so that Friday could read it, but it did not work. He could not open the camera and froze. The lunatic could not only avoid Friday, but also influence his cell phone.

Music began to play, which Tony might have expected in a western movie. A guitar jingled while the red line continued to describe its path. Now it had made a strong north-westerly turn, and as the lane began to take a nearly linear course, the sound of a striking bomb blared from the loudspeakers. Tony winced and held his head, feeling immediately reminded of Afghanistan. The noise was about to fade as it repeated, louder this time, but screams were heard in the background. Tony could not hide a small tremor of his hand. At that moment the door opened as Steve entered. Within the last few days, Tony had given him an access key so he would not always have to open the door for the soldier.

"Come on up," Steve said in greeting. "Most of the others are in the living room." He quickly ran to the mechanic and wanted to pull him up, but Tony got up first.

Both froze together as the deep voice boomed through the speakers. Slowly, Steve turned to face the screen and Tony could see the amazement in him, as he did not know what the map meant, neither.

"These sounds were caused by you, Stark. You know that," the voice said, pausing. " _These_ sounds were caused by you, Stark," the voice continued, and you could hear the loud noise as glasses jerked open and something big landed. He could assign the sound exactly to the Chitauri, who had crashed against houses and streets, had taken several people to death.

" _These_ sounds were caused by you, Stark." There was only a crash, and Tony certainly could not associate that with any event. It could be anything: Sokovia, Afghanistan, somewhere in the US. Everywhere where something has broken, where someone died.

"I understand what you want," Tony muttered, though the psychopath could not hear him. Steve had moved closer, staring at the screen. He pointed questioningly and Tony could only shrug his shoulders helplessly. He did not know what that track meant. The red line had stopped and showed that the way was over at this point.

"Stark, I want to help you," the voice continued. "For days now, your people are looking for the position of Burkwill - congratulations on finding the name, by the way - and yet you still do not know which city he is in. I have already given you a hint, Stark, because Burkwill would be incredibly angry, if you wouldn’t show up. That would not help you or your agent friends.

But I want to tell you something else, Stark." The voice paused and laughed softly.

"Your mind has already figured out where to go. All you have to do is reach out and grab the crucial clue with your hand."

Tony squinted. What the person said did not make sense. He stared at the black screen with the red line and swallowed. The path already faded on the screen and neither of the men moved.

_Your mind has already figured out where to go. All you have to do is reach out and grab the crucial clue with your hand._

Tony knew that the words meant something to him, but his mind was so empty. He could not think of anything the man wanted to say, he did not understand. The red path was barely visible now. Tony took one last look at the path that was clearly described and then narrowed his eyes again.

"That ..." he murmured.

_Your mind has already figured out where to go. All you have to do is reach out and grab the crucial clue with your hand._

He froze again. He felt the blood run out of his face as he thought about the words again. With an open mouth he looked at the screen, on which the red thread was still barely to guess.

When the music was completely silent, Steve addressed the mechanic. He was pale and swallowed. "Tony? Tony? Did you see something? Hey, watch out, we'll get- "

Tony grabbed the soldier's arm and pulled the man behind him. "Come on," he shouted in the out race. "We're flying to Boston."

 

 

While the two men were running up the stairs - they would not be able to stand the waiting in the elevator - Friday told the Avengers that the destination was known. Somewhere in Headquarters, Fury would be told that an airplane had been prepared for takeoff and the Avengers were on their way while the man was mobilizing his agents to assist the group. He did not ask, he had seen the message. Stark had found the crucial information somewhere in it and would certainly declare that on the flight to the city in the north of the states. He set off with a flowing coat.

As Tony and Steve ran through the living room to their rooms, the Avengers were gone. Steve turned left, pulling away from Tony, to look for his suit, while Friday sent the now-completed version of the Iron Man Suit into the plane. Tony was a little proud of his armor extension. Friday's control allowed her to help him in critical situations. If he was in the suit but only if his breathing slowed, she would take over control completely. With trembling hands, the inventor run into his room and rummaged for the medication, which he still had to take. His arm had almost healed thanks to medical technology, even though scars were still visible. It still hurt, but he could move it.

Finally, he had found the pills and he quickly reached for the drops he had to take in the evening before he immediately ran out again. As he hurried out of his room, he almost collided with Clint, who was holding his suit over his arm and putting the coms in his ears with the other one. For a brief moment, both of them were in shock, but then Clint nodded to him.

"Let's go, mate," he said and ran off to the hangar.

The two came last. Tony's meds had dropped halfway and Clint had waited until the mechanic had picked them up, only to run past the assassin. Like a suitcase, his suit was already standing next to the tailgate in the plane and the door closed the moment in which the two were inside.

Natasha was at the cockpit and immediately steered the plane out of the hangar, but the rest of the Avengers looked at Tony expectantly. Vision almost seemed relieved and Wanda kneaded her hands uncertainly in front of her stomach. Barnes was standing behind Steve, who jumped right up when Tony and Clint entered the plane.

"Stark, would you please explain why it has to be Boston?", Fury's voice boomed from loudspeakers on the plane. Tony grabbed a pole so as not to fall over at the start, but everyone else was still looking at him.

"Can we move our troops to Boston for sure, Stark?" The director chipped after him.

Tony nodded, even though the other man could not see him. "Mens et Manus," Tony muttered.

He saw out of the corner of his eye that Vision was straightening up and Natasha looked at him briefly as she changed places with Clint.

"Mind and hand?", she translated and looked at Tony. He nodded.

"The motto of the MIT, in Boston. And then the path."

"The floor plan of the building?" Wanda guessed, but Tony shook his head. No floor plan looked like that. "No, that was really a path. The Freedom Trail," he explained. "It practically leads through all of Boston. I used to run along it a lot during my time there," he muttered.

Natasha showed her cell phone in the round. It showed a map of Boston with the red road snaking through the city. Steve exhaled audibly and Wanda nodded. "That's the same line that was on the screen," she confirmed.

It seemed so clear now. During his time at MIT, he often walked along the path that linked sights throughout the city over 2.5 miles in length. He was surprised that he did not immediately realize it, but it had become clear to him through the hidden clue of the stranger. Mind and Hand, MIT, Boston.

"So, Massachusetts, then," Barnes said quietly, whispering something to Steve. Tony was glad that he had showered in the morning, now that he was so unexpectedly back among with his people. He saw some of them for the first time in days. Wanda looked absent-minded and tired, and even under Barnes' eyes were dark rings. Steve had been with Tony the day before, or at least it could have been the day before. He did not know anymore. His appearance had not improved. He still looked tired when he got up and said in the round that he was going to change now. As a precaution, who knew what could happen.

Clint and Natasha also joined, so Tony climbed onto the pilot's seat.

"Friday, how long do we need?", he asked the AI. They were sitting in a new, but nevertheless large plane, it would take a long time and they had practically only this day and Friday, before the deadline would expire on Saturday. And who knew at what time.

"About forty-five minutes, sir," the AI said. Tony nodded. Definitely faster than a normal plane, he thought. It took less than two minutes and all the Avengers were fully suited on the plane. Only Rhodey and Tony did suit up.

"Fury has provided a safe shelter just south of Boston for us," said Natasha. "He’s checked Tony's statement, and find it appropriate; several agent teams are following us now. In addition, some aircraft are traveling to other cities, because of the distraction."

Tony nodded, then turned his attention to the sea of lights below him, which was coloured by the setting sun in a dark purple light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was way shorter than I expected it to be. I'll probably be uploading another chapter this week and then at the weekend again. 
> 
> I wish you all a wonderful last Christmas day!


	20. Chapter 20

The accommodation was not small, but it was not intended for eight people. When the Avengers arrived after forty-five minutes of weary silence, they hustled up the creaking stairs of the old house, on the edge of a suburb of Boston.

The plane had been parked without light in the pasture behind the house, surrounded by smaller and larger trees. The house, which was probably still from the early days of the United States, was inhabited only by an old man who had opened the door with narrowed eyes and had let them in in a rough voice. His humpbacked showed that he worked many years as a farmer, almost unusual for a suburb of Boston. The house stood at the end of a small path, separated from the road by several trees. But even without this privacy, nobody would be interested in the dilapidated building, Tony suggested. The neighbours would be as interested in the man as they were in the polls in Bulgaria.

The lights of the houses were all off, rarely could you hear a dog barking when his master came back from the tiring work in the evening just to ignore his pet and put his feet up. Probably the wife would bring a cool drink quickly and then put on the TV with the football program, Tony thought.

But not with the man. Lasse Van Peeters had lost his wife while fighting in Vietnam, that’s at least what Natasha had told them on their way there. The only child, by this time with own children, was living in the Netherlands again, as Lasse's parents did, but he visited the father occasionally. Van Peeters had met his second wife in the army, but only five years later she had died in Afghanistan, Natasha explained, and Tony could remember his dismay.

Since then the old man has worked in his own garden, isolated from neighbours and friends; he used to run a horse before it was being shot due to an illness. Nevertheless, he somehow had built up contact with SHIELD and offered them the top floor of his house if there was an emergency; he could not use it anyway.

And that was what Tony saw. He was the third to walk up the narrow wooden stairs, and a musty smell came to meet him. Wanda, who was running in front of him, coughed and put her hand over her mouth when she saw the dust. The last rays of sun fell through a skylight and showed clearly that nobody cleaned up here for years.

Tony stopped and looked around. The stairs landed directly in a living room with three old beige and red sofas arranged around a small wooden table. An empty vase graced him, or at least tried.

The wood that draped the walls was riddled with woodworm holes, and a large carpet covered the furthest parts of the floor. Tony was cold. The man had told them in a few words that although they were all allowed to live upstairs, they were by no means supposed to put their shoes on the stairs. There were now eight pairs of shoes in the narrow hallway downstairs, and Tony and the other Avengers in socks.

Next to a chimney, a corridor began that probably led to the four rooms and the bathroom, as the man had explained to them.

"Wow," Clint murmured dryly and then, without further ado, ran to the skylight to rip it open. Tony turned away. It was cold, but the air smelled like a zoo, so he'd rather freeze than endure all the time.

"I'll stay in the living room," Steve said into the silence that had once again spread. It was unusual that they all talked so little, Tony noticed, but probably his colleagues were all as tired as he was.

"No," Vision contradicted. "Excuse me, but I do not need a comfortable bed. It is most logical if you occupy all the beds and I stay here in the living room if there are only six correct sleeping places."

"Sleeping places can be found everywhere," Steve replied immediately but smiled gratefully to Vision.

"I'll stay here too," Rhodey said, but Tony looked at him dumbfounded. The man was most likely to need a bed, he was about to say, but his friend interrupted him. "I do not feel the legs down anymore. I don’t need to take a big bed, the sofa is enough for me."

 Tony stared at him but had to admit that it had a certain logic.

"Nat?" Clint asked, bowing and opening one of the creaking wooden doors. "We have two beds in the room here," he said, and Natasha nodded in understanding. She quickly ran after the archer to look at her accommodation.

Barnes and Steve looked at each other for a moment and then ran to find a bed. Tony thought he had seen a slightly disappointed look from Steve but had to be wrong. There should be two rooms, each with one bed, Van Peeters had said, and Wanda and Tony were running toward it. The narrow corridor had five doors, the two larger rooms left and right in front and behind that, the single rooms, before the last door probably led to the small bathroom. Tony scraped into the room next to Steve's and Bucky's and once again tore to open the window. The wooden door creaked as he closed it behind him. A fur lay on the floor of the chamber, where the thin bed and just a small closet could be found.

Tired, he slumped onto the bed just to the right of the door and closed his eyes, just for a moment. The bed was dusty and uncomfortable, and the pillow barely a hand wide. A cold wind swept through the window, though it was summer. By now it was dark outside and Tony could hear chirping crickets. Of course, he did not carry a suitcase with him, he did not have to unpack anything, but before he went back to the others, he wanted to have a moment for himself.

Here they were. In Boston, in the city where it would probably end. A psychopath had piloted him and his comrades into this city and they had barely more than a day to find their exact location before either he, Tony or the agents and Avengers were killed or arrested.

And most likely it was going to be Tony.

Ironically, it would end in the city where it started for him. His studies at MIT had revealed the way for his whole future, for his production of weapons and later Iron Man armor. Tony wondered if Burkwill had done it on purpose. He sighed. It would not change anything. They had to come up with a plan to get his comrades out of the hands of the psychopath, and he was already tired. He felt the exhaustion in every pore of his body, he felt the all-nighters and the lack of real food. And he felt the pressure.

He felt the guilt that he had not even heard that twenty-four years ago children had been killed by his grenades. He knew it, that was clear. He knew that innocent children were killed in the war every day. But in the middle of a city? In the middle of a maybe even peaceful city?

And he could not even remember a mail or a letter, he could not remember anything. It had passed him, as many other deaths probably did. And now he got his revenge. Somehow he could understand it, even if it hurt. Maybe it was the run he had to take, even though everything was levelling out right now.

The so-called 'Civil War' was over, he had even dropped his façade for a moment, a moment just with Steve. As much as he wanted, he could not be mad at Barnes, and Rhodey walked again as if nothing had ever happened to him.

He clapped his hand over his face. Maybe it was going too fast in the right direction, maybe he should have foreseen it. He was tired. So tired.

Someone knocked on his door, tearing him out of his slow thoughts that he was startled. He got up cautiously, even had to stop for a moment to get his circulation going again before he opened the door and went into the living room. Quickly he straightened up again and, as the last, entered the full but comfortable room. With folded arms, he leaned against the wall.

As his eyes darted around the room, he noticed that Steve had done exactly the same, and Vision kept an eye on the entire room as he put a cell phone on a cupboard next to him. Natasha was sitting on the back of one of the armchairs and Rhodey had sat down. Clint tapped something on a cell phone and told Barnes what he was doing. The soldier sat next to Wanda, who was nervously tapping her fingers on her legs.

"We’ll have to split up," Clint began to tell. Tony noticed that there was a laptop on the small table showing Fury and some key agents and employees of SHIELD who were listening in on live. "At least for working. We have no further clue where to go. But we can’t search the whole city, so in small groups, we will examine the buildings and places that seem most realistic."

Tony saw that Barnes raised his eyebrows. "Even if we find him then we would be right in front of him. Alone. Should we attack him then or what?"

"You have to be quiet," Fury said. "But if you get into a direct fight, you just have to endure it. We will make sure that there are agents everywhere nearby you. You need fast connections, you're right, Barnes."

He just nodded but did not seem satisfied.

"And Rogers," Fury continued through the laptop. "Actually, you are still not in full permission to leave the quarters. We've made sure you're allowed in Boston but stay in the background as much as you can. We can’t use any further problems."

Steve stared at the screen, petrified, with a wary look. It took a few seconds before he answered.

"Yes," he replied curtly. He gritted his teeth and Tony could understand his annoyance. He would feel the same way if he was not allowed to operate. But at least that was about him, not Steve. He did not want to allow feelings, but he was glad that the soldier wanted to fight for him. _Or for the Avengers and Agents._

But the soldier gave an apologetic look to Tony at that moment and he knew that he was concerned about him. His heart raced briefly before he could calm down again.

"What are we looking for?" asked Rhodey, who had not seen the exchange of views.

As Fury was about to respond, Vision moved forward.

"We shouldn’t be looking at all,” he replied, earning dumbfounded glances. He continued to straighten up. "Burkwill has carefully given small hints the whole time. He will not stop, so close to the end. He still wants his revenge," he analysed. "He just wants us to have no plan before. If we split up, we are scattered around the city as the crucial clue falls; we are unprepared and uncoordinated. We just have to wait here and Burkwill will call again."

Tony saw Natasha and Clint exchange two looks that meant something to them, while he could only nod. Vision was right. Burkwill would get in touch, soon. Fury turned on the screen, probably talking to someone and conferring, before turning back to the camera after almost a minute.

"The plan makes more sense," he admitted. "You all stay in place; as soon as Burkwill announces something, turn us in and we'll create a plan. Until then, we'll just send our agents through the city, maybe they'll finally find something, but you'll stay calm. Sleep well, until he gives real tips, rest. We need you ready for action."

He added something, but Tony did not listen. His eyes searched the room as he considered what he would do in the next few hours. He certainly could not sleep while they were so close to getting the madman. Or getting caught by him. He swallowed.

Meanwhile, Fury had said goodbye to the group, and Clint was closing the laptop when a loud sound pierced the living room. Everyone listened because they knew exactly what it meant.

A message had been received. Immediately Clint opened the laptop again and clicked on two or three buttons before a black screen opened again. Slowly, Tony pulled away from the wall he was leaning against and walked to the center of the room to better look at the screen. He felt Steve's arm, which accidentally touched his after he had come closer. Vision stood behind Tony, arms crossed, trying to get a glimpse of the screen all were staring at.

The laptop made a cracking sound as the whispering voice of Burkwill came through the speakers.

"Boston, then," he said without a greeting. "I'm surprised you got it so fast, I have to admit." Tony thought he heard some frustration in the psychopath's voice, but he could not properly classify it. "But now that you’re all here, we can start. It's getting boring very quickly on such an old floor."

Tony groaned in frustration. He could not believe that Burkwill had his eyes everywhere. He saw that Clint angrily looked at his comrades as if they were the reason the man knew everything again. Steve turned around as if to see if he could find a drone outside the window. But then it got worse, and Tony hung his head in agony.

"It's interesting, but in the room where you, Stark, sleep, Jamie Handerson spent his last night in the US, almost a hundred years ago. The next day he was deported to Europe, where he died after only four weeks in the war. Splinter of a bomb that had been ignited inside of him. A painful end, which hit his parents and siblings strongly. But they knew what their boy was doing." Burkwill's voice darkened. "They knew something could happen to him. They had not been in the car with him on the way to the zoo to look at the new-born elephant without ever arriving there."

Tony straightened his shoulders and nodded stiffly. He would not show any weakness now. The screen was still black, but Tony knew that Burkwill could see them all.

"You all know what can happen in an unexpected attack. The _o'Zuraq_ have vividly presented it." He paused to let the words work. Tony's chest rose quickly. Now they had the proof: The stranger had contact with the alien race and damn, Tony thought, they even had a name.

"I could have let you die, Stark," Burkwill said in the ghostly silence that had spread. Only Vision moved behind Tony as the Englishman spoke on. "This cave was easy to fill up, Rogers would have been an easy opponent, we could have even manipulated the water," he spoke in rage. Natasha looked attentively at her teammates and mouthed something that drew attention to the _we_ the man had said.

"Instead, we even removed wasp nest from the cave you were in, Stark." Tony clawed his hands into the back of the sofa in front of him. _These crazy people had been there. They stood beside him as he almost died of thirst and felt incredible pain._

"Why didn’t you do it then?" he asked the lunatic for the first time. His voice was hoarse. Steve beside him stiffened at the question, but Tony needed to know.

"Because it makes more sense. You will learn about the most important reason soon enough, but only this way, the fresh love could be aroused," said the man on. Tony changed his position. He did not know what the man meant.

"You know what I mean," he said at that moment. "The months before, you wanted to hide your problems but kept talking. Rogers here and Rogers there. I wanted you to know it before it comes to an end." Now Tony finally stiffened. Barnes turned to him with his mouth open, or perhaps to Steve, who could not move beside him either. Tony could only stare at the couch in front of him, he did not want to look at the other man. His mouth escaped something like a whimper. He took a deep breath. That was not allowed to happen now. It was not allowed to happen in general, but certainly not now. Steve was not like him, Tony knew that. And even if he always tried to persuade himself by little gestures of the other differently.

And even if Steve liked him, they would never be friends anymore, because the fight a few months ago had changed everything between them. Tony wanted to sink in the ground. "I ..." he began to explain quietly but stopped when Burkwill went on. He felt Steve's eyes on him.

"Did I spoil you?" The voice asked through the laptop, innocently. "I'm sorry, but you both knew it all the time anyway. I just want to help. You and your teammates who had to listen to you so often."

Tony saw Wanda look down in dismay, realizing that Vision stepped back three steps as if to give them both space and privacy. Tony dared to glance briefly at Steve. He stared open-mouthed at the screen, but Tony could also see that he had blushed as if it really was something he knew. The mechanic hardly dared to hope.

"What do you want?", Natasha interrupted the unpleasant silence at that moment. Tony remembered that he had to tell Friday to give Natasha some presents for all the help. Steve still did not say anything, just looked at Tony.

Only then did he realize that Burkwill shouldn’t even know that he had talked about Steve with his remaining teammates because he had always been careful. Unless the security leak really was Friday. Or one of the teammates he trusted so much. Natasha, Vision, Rhodey. He swallowed. It could not have been one of them, and Friday was safe, too. Maybe there was always a little microphone near him. Tony remembered Ant-Man, who had finally walked into his suit. The information must have taken this way to get to Burkwill, he told himself frantically.

Then Burkwill answered in a cold voice. "I want Stark to suffer. I want him to suffer as much as I did. I want him to leave loved ones when he comes to me. And then I will use his technology to end the war in the Middle East."

Tony scrambled to his feet, trying to look relaxed as his thoughts raced. Goosebumps spread over his body. His ankles were already white, so much did he reach into the back of the sofa. "I don’t have enough weapons for this. The plan will not work," he replied, but his voice was timid. He saw that Clint nodded affirmatively as if to make the situation better.

"No, you don’t have that, Stark, that's right. But they have trading partners who can adjust the supplies, and then the production."

Tony shook his head. "Only Pepper or I can prescribe that no way leads past it." He felt the panic rise in his mind again as he remembered when he'd last talked to Pepper. It had only been yesterday, probably in the evening, but they had only been on the phone for a short time because she had an important conversation to make, as she said.

"And Mrs. Potts is currently in China," Burkwill ended Tony's thoughts. "You wanted to say that, didn’t you?"

Tony shook his head as he realized the extent of his negligence. They were practically at war, and he'd let Pepper go to China on her own and did not keep checking where she was. Only Friday could locate her, but she would have said something, if not -

"Or at least her cell phone is there. And the GPS system in her earring. Safely held in the purse of an employee who is now sleeping in her former hotel room."

Tony could hear the grin in the man's voice. He felt how he was slowly losing control of his emotions; how tears slowly crept into his eyes, which he quickly blinked away. He couldn’t have Pepper.

"Mrs. Potts has the authority to turn Stark Industries' production back to weapons as well as re-seek trading partners and renew businesses. If you're with me, Stark, I'll let her go, if you make the announcements first. Mrs. Potts will then work closely with us, after all, she knows what will happen if she does not."

The man chuckled. "This woman can bite and kick hard, you have to leave that to her."

Tony shook his head in disbelief, only to nod.

"Where do I have to go?" he asked weakly and felt the eyes of others on him. Steve stammered a bit, but the noise in Tony's ears was too loud for him to understand. Rhodey's mouth opened in disbelief, but Tony did not care. He did not care if nothing else went according to plan. The psychopath had Pepper, the only person who had been with him throughout the last few months.

"Let Pepper go, I'll come wherever I have to go," he added, but the man just laughed. "You’ll get the information soon enough. But for today it is enough. I still have to feed prisoners. Oh yeah, and Stark," he added. "I want you alone."

And, as if nothing had happened, he closed the window again and Tony looked at the image of an island that formed the desktop wallpaper. He had to pull himself together, not to cry, as he stared at the ground below. Still nobody moved, they were all affected. They stood in silence until Steve reached out and gently placed his Hand on Tony's. His eyes stared for a few moments at the hands that lay on top of each other. He felt the warmth of Steve, whom he had already missed so much. He looked up into watery eyes, but then he tore his hands away and stumbled back a few steps.

"I have to check something," he muttered, more to himself than anyone, and escaped down the hall to his room. He closed his heart like the door he slammed shut, at least he told himself. Quickly he turned over the old key, then, shaking and staggering, stared at his cell phone and entered the number he never forgot.

There were two full minutes of despair growing before a familiar, beloved voice spoke.

"This is Virginia Potts, unfortunately, I'm not available at the moment, please try-", Tony pushed the call away as he slid down the door and finally lost the fight against the tears.

Trembling and sniffling, he reached up to avoid being too loud, repeating words like a meter over and over again. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!
> 
> A couple of days ago, I realised that this story doesn't make too much sense. Like nobody would react the way I let them react. Nobody. And it's probably getting even worse.   
> So, right now I'm really struggeling with updating, because I'm highly disappointed in myself. But I wrote this for fun and I really don't feel like I'd like to change things now.   
> So I'm just gonna finish this story, it's not too long anymore, anyways. But I know it's not the best story it's maybe even far from good, but I don't want to just stop in the middle of it. That would really trigger me. 
> 
> So, yeah. Y'all don't have to like it. I can do way better, I don't know what came over me when I was writing this. I just wanted you to know that I know, too, that this doesn't make too much sense. 
> 
> I wish you all a nice start into the next year!


	21. Chapter 21

It took a while before he could calm down. Before he slowly got his breathing under control again and the tears finally dried up. Angrily, he wiped the wet marks off his face, but he sat and stared wearily at the wall opposite him. He wondered if Jamie Handerson had been sitting here like this before when he had to leave, or if he had volunteered to show the Germans that they could not simply destroy American ships. Whether he was happy, whether he had celebrated. Tony's fingers slipped weakly over the rough ground over which several people had walked over before him. Nevertheless, his fingers faltered over an irregularity in the expired wood. Curious, he bent down to read the incised message. Somebody, just like him, had sat there with a knife, writing a number in the floor that Tony could easily read. A shiver ran down his spine.

_1918_   stood there, carved into the old wooden floor.

Exhaling, the mechanic threw his head against the door, causing him a throbbing pain, but he did not care. He had his answer on how Jamie had probably felt. Jamie Handerson, presumably a young man still living his life, was drafted to rescue his family. He could have hidden, could have walked, no one in this place would have come after him. Nevertheless, he had faced his fate and went off to Europe. And maybe he was the one soldier who finally decided the war. Just when Tony wanted to jump up, there was a knock at his door.

"Tony," Rhodey's voice said softly but approached froze. He stayed silent.

"Tony, are you still awake? We have to think of a plan. Hey, whatever's going on in your head, turn it off. Steve wants to talk to you, and we could find Pepper's cell phone in China. We’ll find somebody from Burkwills group. Agents in China are already on it. Tony?" He asked again, but again the mechanic said nothing. In his head were images of Pepper and Steve.

He could not, not now. He knew he had promised to get more involved, but he could not. Not after such a secret was made public, and not when he was not sure how he would react to the others; if he had his emotions under control.

"I know you're not sleeping, mate," Rhodey went on. Tony was still staring at the wooden wall across from him, but he could hear another person slipping against the hallway on the opposite side of the door. He could not understand what was said, just that someone said something to Steve, and Tony froze. He shook his head but said nothing more.

"If you need something, call, or write. And if we get more information then you'll come to the living room, otherwise, I'll have to break the door, and Van Peeters will not like that."

For a moment it was quiet again as if Rhodey still hoped that Tony would react, but then he heard the clack of metal on wood and it was quiet around him.

 

At some point, it also became quiet in the living room and Tony, still sitting on the floor, could hear that the room doors next to him were all slowly closing. It took him half an hour before he could get up. Quietly he stood at the window and rummaged his phone out of his pocket. He tried again to call Pepper, but again the answering machine was the only thing to be heard. He rubbed his hand over his face. He knew he had to do something. His gaze wandered back to the door, then back to the window.

Softly he pushed it open and cool air immediately moved into the room. Tony listened for a moment, not wanting to be disturbed by somebody. The others would stop him, no matter how good his arguments were, he could not allow that. Too much depended on it now. If he could safely get Pepper out of Burkwill's clutches, she would be protected and could undo any changes Tony had previously made known. She and the other agents would be saved, and Stark Industries would continue to have nothing to do with the war. Tony was about to stretch his foot out the window when he got an idea. Quietly he crept to the dusty cupboard and pulled it open. He smiled as he saw that there was really stuff left in here. An old wool sweater hung on a hanger, already completely moth-eaten, but down in the closet were two shoes.

"Yeah," Tony muttered, slipping into the surprisingly comfortable shoes. He wondered if he should write a note, but then shook his head. The others would understand him, maybe not now, but soon. Carefully, Tony sat down on the window frame and suddenly felt reminded of his childhood. He used to break out of his parents' house on a regular basis, but today it was a different story. Slowly he let his shoe slide down and searched in the dark for a notch in the wall. It took time, but then he found a wooden beam sticking out of the stone. Slowly his other foot could follow and he would have fallen off almost instantaneously if he had not held onto the wooden frame of the window with his hands. He flinched when a cat munched beneath him but calmed down again. _Don’t panic_ , he told himself. _Just get down and you’re in your suit_.

It used to be easier, Tony noted, but finally pulled his hand away from the window just to press it against a small stone. He hardly dared to look down, because the house was quite high. It took him ten minutes before he found his way down safely. With a dull sound, he jumped on the grass. There was still light coming from the room of Steve and Barnes, but it was off in the living room. Quietly, Tony slipped into the pasture behind the house and opened the plane that still stood there with a short command. Without looking around, he jumped in and just wanted to tell Friday that he could put on the suit when a voice stopped him.

"You had promised not to go alone," Steve said, coming out of one of the corners.

"Am I monitored now?" Tony asked. He had to admit, the other had scared him. But Steve shook his head in a little light. "I wanted to look at everything again, but not bother anyone."

Tony nodded slightly. "I promised not to seek Burkwill," he said softly. "Now I'm looking for Pepper."

Meanwhile, Steve stood right in front of him and looked at him. Tony turned his eyes to the floor. "Sorry, because of earlier," he mumbled. Two strong hands lay on his shoulders.

"Earlier?" Steve asked softly.

"That I ... he ... in front of the others. I'm sorry. I didn't want  to put you in any- "

"It's okay," the soldier interrupted and was silent for a moment. "Is it true?"

Tony took a deep breath. His heart beat fast. "I ..." he murmured and stopped. _Yes, that's true_. "I just want to find Pepper. And the others. Please, Steve, I cannot do that now."

The pressure from his shoulders subsided as the soldier took his hands away. In the little light, Tony could barely see what the other one was doing.

"I'd like it if it was true," he mumbled barely audible for Tony. He froze.

"What?" he whispered, startled. He thought Steve must hear his heartbeat thumping in his chest.

"I would like it, Tony."

Tony heard the blood rushing to his ears as the sentence hit him like a thump. His mouth was open and he could not move as tears began to gather in his eyes. He wanted to scream because he was such an emotional wreck, but he could do nothing. For the last few months, all the last _years_ , he kept his secret out of fear of Steve's reaction. From the _knowledge_ that the other one was not like him. For fear he would go away. Or never come back - what had been the reason in recent months. And now, at the most inopportune moment, the other said something that Tony had otherwise only dreamed of. He shook his head in disbelief.

"No," he murmured softly. "No."

Steve could not do that to him now. That was exactly what Burkwill wanted to achieve. He could not leave him behind. Not after all this time. Not this way.

"Tony, I ..."

"No, fuck. Fuck."

"I thought you…"

"No. Yes. Shit."

Tony felt the salty water running down his cheeks. He turned his head to the floor and slid his hands over his face again. "Fuck," he sniffled.

"I'm sorry," Steve explained, turning away.

"No," Tony called and immediately lowered his voice again. "It's ... fuck."

Steve was quiet for a moment too long.

"Language," he said uncertainly and came one step closer to the smaller one. Briefly, they both faced each other before Tony, as driven by a sudden impulse, bridged the gap and wrapped his arms around Steve. "I'm sorry," he whispered again. "Let us clarify that afterwards."

Steve nodded as he pulled Tony closer. The mechanic could hear his heart beating fast and it made him even more angry with Burkwill. "You really want to go, don't you, Tony?"

"I have to," he corrected.

"I’ll come with you."

"Can you fly?"

Steve shook his head. "Just this," he said, pointing to the plane.

Tony took a breath. "I have to do it alone. It’s too important."

It took a minute before Steve nodded enough for Tony to notice. By now he had closed his eyes and listened only to the regular heartbeat of the larger one.

"You don’t have to go there alone," he still tried, his voice breaking.

"Yes, I do," Tony whispered back. "This is my fight."

He waited a moment. "Are you taking care of Pepper?"

"Until you're back."

 

 

Tony could barely remember what had happened. He had to have pushed away from Steve and then run to the suit. He still remembered the other's face. He had seen tears in those blue eyes, but he had let him go. Steve had understood him, maybe he had the whole time.

This was something Tony had to do alone. He knew Steve would tell Barnes ... he would tell Bucky, probably immediately after he left. Probably the other Avengers would now know that he was gone. But they could not find him. They had to wait until they had more information and they could not track him, Tony had taken care of that.

In his suit, he flew over the sea of lights of the state's capital, as Friday reported him a message. He accepted it, almost curious of what would happen.

Burkwill's voice covered the city's noise and the wind around him.

"You're alone," the voice said. Tony could hear the monster's joy. "Do not worry, the other Avengers are not getting any news. I'll tell you where to go now. And make no move to let your comrades know. You have already noticed that you have a security leak with you and I can assure you it's not Friday."

Tony's eyes widened and he almost choked on himself. He did not answer, he just could not do that. "Yes, it is indeed one of your dear teammates. Of course, that person gets something back for their services."

"Who?" Tony finally asked hoarsely. Burkwill laughed. "You will see that, soon. I expect you in the Boston Public Garden in two hours. Alone."

Tony nodded, even though the other man could not see him. His heart throbbed with excitement as his thoughts rolled over. One of his comrades, of his _friends_ , had been constantly reporting to this psychopath these past weeks and months. He had informed him of secret and intimate things, and it was not unlikely that he was one of his people. If Burkwill even knew about events before the return of Steve and his people, it must have been Natasha, Rhodey or Vision.

Tony felt his mouth go dry. His thoughts skipped. He could not trust any of his comrades to do such an act. He felt his pulse rise and the panic grow in him. He had gotten sick and was about to say Friday that she had to inform Steve, but he knew better.

If he called him, they could track his position, and so close to the end, everything would be gone. He had to know Pepper to be safe, and the others too, only then could he think about possible ways out.

From his time in college, he knew the Public Garden very well. In the summer he had often written and studied there, sometimes with friends, or those who pretended to be friends.

More often he was there because of the atmosphere. The park was big, he realized as he flew over it, but he knew where he needed to go. Now, at this time, there was hardly anything going on here. Tony did not even hear teenagers who listened to music and drank alcohol. It was almost completely silent when he landed on a tree a few feet away from the bridge in the middle of the park. The lights of the city were reflected in the lake, but the otherwise crowded bridge stood quietly in the still water. Somewhere a swan fluttered, Tony guessed, but otherwise, he heard nothing. Carefully, he sat down more comfortably, always careful not to make unnecessary noises. He opened his helmet and focused his eyes on the bridge, where hopefully a clean handover would take place in two hours. Tony was sure Burkwill would take this bridge. And now he just had to wait.

For the first time in a long while, Tony came to rest.

His breathing slowed noticeably and his thoughts drifted off in his dozing state to his conversation with Steve earlier.

A sad smile crossed his face as he thought of what had happened. All those years, all that time, Tony Stark had been scared. Afraid of the reaction of a man whom he had despised at first because he had fallen in love with him. And now, at the end of the path, the other one told him that he felt similar.

_Or he just wanted to make me feel better if it's over anyway_.

Tony shook his head. He might not be good with emotions, but he understood that much. Steve said what he meant. A sting ran through his heart as he recalled the other's face. The sadness, the pain, when he had left him.

The moment a tear fell on his suit, it started to rain. A desperate laugh dismissed his mouth as he realized how dramatic everything was now. He cursed his sensibility and slid a little closer to the tree, hoping it would protect him a bit from the rain. The shower got stronger and after a few minutes Tony sat down attentively on the wet branch. One person slowly hobbled to the bridge. Tony's mouth opened. It was too early for the delivery. Was one of the prisoners broken out? That could be Lang, Tony judged by the silhouette and got ready to pick up the Avenger. But then the person stopped.

A beer bottle fell to the ground and the man staggered to pick it up before he stepped forward two more feet and was now better for Tony to see. Disappointed, he leaned back and the homeless sipped past his hiding place as if Tony did not exist. After half a minute, the man suddenly stopped and turned back around, staring right where Tony was. Carefully, the mechanic pulled his hands up and laid them on the arc reactor to dampen the bluish glow. The man stared for a few more seconds before putting his bottle to his mouth and shrugging.

It was only when Tony was sure the drunk had run away that he stretched, and tore off a few wet leaves from the tree, which he placed carefully on his chest. His face was completely wet by now, but he did not want to put on the helmet because it shone as well. Again, Tony leaned back and turned his attention to the bridge below him. His thoughts, however, hung on Steve and the traitor, who was sitting under the same roof as the soldier.

 

Less than two hours later, life came to the park. It was still raining, and Tony was terribly cold by now. The water had somehow come under his armor and he felt soaked to the bone. He shivered and knew that he was allowed to be happy if only he had a simple cold after that.

The last lights in the park had gone out and with just the few street noises that now reached the park, it seemed eerie. Tony was torn from his thoughts by a movement across the river; about how Howard would react if he knew that Tony and Steve had more or less made a confession of love.

A shadow emerged from a bush and ran quickly under the bridge. Somewhere, someone dived into the water, and more and more bushes moved suddenly. Black-clad men and women positioned themselves on the other side of the river. A thunder pervaded the park and at the same time, a bright light flashed. That was not a storm, Tony knew. He did not know if it was the cold or the tiredness, but a shiver ran down his spine. He could barely see the other side of the bridge. More shadows - big shadows - gathered and the beating of a stick on stone broke the otherwise perfect silence. Then it was quiet again.

Tony took a deep breath and slowly moved away from the slippery branch on the side of the tree where Burkwill and his people would hopefully not recognize him so quickly.

When he was down, he pulled the completely wet leaves from his arc reactor. Handerson's shoes slipped in his suit because of the water. He felt as if he had just climbed out of the pool, but then he began to move. He went a long way to walk a little longer to the bridge. Always eager to take big and slow steps, he eventually nourished himself in the place where hundreds and thousands of people would run again each day. Tony still had not put his helmet on. He wanted to show Burkwill that he was not afraid, even if it was not true.

His heart throbbed painfully in his chest, and his ribs were heavy. Tony was glad the suit hid the shaking of his hands.

"You are too early," Tony greeted Burkwill, hoping that the man would even be on the other side. He still could not see anything. The rain took away his view and almost swallowed his words.

"You too," answered the well-known voice with the British accent. Tony had stopped moving by now. He felt small, alone on his half of the bridge, while Burkwill stood there with at least fifteen other people.

A shadow erupted from the crowd and Tony straightened his shoulders. Slowly a man walked to him. Tony knew it was the madman walking in his suit. He did not move.

Burkwill was a little smaller than Tony in his suit, but that did not stop him from getting closer and closer. Tony's jaw jumped together. He stared at the man who had stretched out his left arm and now put it on Tony's armor. He kept staring straight ahead. He was looking for Pepper and the others, but they could be any of those shadows. Or none.

"You have a leaf on your suit," Burkwill almost whispered. The man had long since bridged the optimal distance between two strangers. His face was barely five inches from Tony's. Tony was about to hit him when the man pulled the leaf from his suit with a pleased grin, but he knew that would make the situation escalate.

"Show me Mrs. Potts, Mr. Lang, Wilson, Dragenbach, and Khatib," he answered instead, just a little louder. He was still staring at the man's hair in front of him, avoiding his eyes. Burkwill laughed. "Immediately. But don't you think it would be polite to look at me when you talk to me, Stark? As a small excuse for what you did."

Tony inhaled audibly and kneaded his lips, but then he lowered his eyes and looked at the older man. Crystal blue eyes looked at him and white hair on top of it. The bushy eyebrows were already wet and drops of water were collecting in the beard. Nevertheless, the man still grinned. "Now, this is good. Thank you. Oh," he grinned like a child. "I'll have your people brought right away, by my special guest."

"The traitor," Tony stated and Burkwill opened his mouth with a pang.

"Oh, please. Traitor! I wouldn't call him that. Put it this way, we have a deal that will help both sides." Like an old friend, Burkwill put his remaining arm around the cold armor of Tony. He felt bad when the man pulled him slowly to the side of the bridge.

"But first I have something to show you," whispered Burkwill again. He nodded to the lake, which stretched out below them. "There are my people sitting. And there," he said, pointing to the other side of the bridge. "And there."

Tony did not even nod. He just realized it. Maybe he had secretly hoped that the others would find him before it ended, and they could fight Burkwill.

"I just want you to know that if you have stupidity in your head, you have no chance. I know your Avengers are just not able to come. For that, I thank my ... business partner. And I also know that when you stepped out the window, you had not told anyone about your plan. But I want you to know that none of your friends, whether Avenger or Agent, can help you here. We have a deal, right?"

In the end, Burkwill sounded like a little kid. "Oh, just a second before I let your friends come. O _'Kura-Zuraq ando_ ," he suddenly said loudly. Tony winced almost imperceptibly. Burkwill added something in a language Tony had never heard before. It reminded him of Jawaese from _Star Wars_ , but much deeper and much more aggressive.

"I just organized a watch quickly," Burkwill chuckled, finally releasing Tony's back. He walked three steps back, while the mechanic heard something big coming up behind him. He turned just in time to avoid being caught in the back by giant claws stretched out by a tremendously big creature. Tony froze when he saw the alien in front of him. He felt again the pain in his stomach and chest, in his arms and in his head when he was almost torn to pieces by a bomb hundreds of yards in the air. It was exactly this alien that he had carried away. His eyes were wide and his brow furrowed so that he could barely hide his surprise and fear.

"Don't worry," Burkwill explained. "This is not the same _o'Kura-Zuraq_ as it was over Tom's River. Only a conspecific. They all look alike, which sometimes makes it hard for people to tell them apart."

Tony buckled under the strength of the paw thrown on his shoulder. Panic spread in his chest. If Burkwill still had one of these brains, then the smaller aliens could also walk around here. And they had already caused a panic when they flew over a small town at a height of hundreds of yards. Not in the middle of Boston. Tony felt the rainwater in his armor gather sweat as well. Besides, Burkwill let a brain walk practically unprotected. If he could do that, he might have had more.

A shiver ran down his spine.

"You shall bring them here, now!" Burkwill exclaimed in an exaggerated English manner. Still, the monster's paws pressed Tony to his knees, but he braced himself against it. The creature stank of old sweat and Tony could see the mucus flow out of the pores behind the ears. It covered the creature like a second skin and was slowly running down his armor as well, without being washed away by the rain.

Slowly a few of the shadows loosened and sipped on the bridge. Tony shuddered when he saw that two of the alien beings - the smaller ones - were accompanying the persons. He could see them poorly in the little light, but he saw that one of the people limped heavily. When they reached the middle of the bridge, they stopped and were pushed to the ground.

"I can’t see them. I have to get closer," Tony said coolly to Burkwill. The man nodded and walked ahead, and the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ followed him. Tony still felt it’s strength under the armor and he could barely stand upright. He realized that the suit must help him because alone he would not have been able to counteract such forces. Only a few yards in front of the others they stopped. Tony studied the prisoners. It must have been Wilson who had hobbled. He looked up at Tony with a pained face and barely nodded to him. Lang sat next to him, blood all over his face, apparently with a broken nose. Beside him, there was Agent Khatib, whose suit was little more than a few rags barely covering his trembling and wounded body. Agent Dragenbach looked most likely to be ready to fight. Angrily he stared at Burkwill and tried to tell Tony something with his eyes, but his attention was drawn to the person next to Dragenbach. Pepper had her head on her chest. Tony got angry when he saw that they must have completely surprised her. She still wore the clothes she usually wore at meetings. At least they had not gone farther, Tony thought, but then Pepper raised her head. Tony's heart stopped beating for a moment, and he could not stop himself, and tore himself away from the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ , and was about to storm to Burkwill, but the claw seized him again and pulled him back. Pain exploded in his ribs and he was breathing heavily as he screamed.

"What did you do to her?" he cried. He did not care that everyone that heard him could tell how desperate he was.

Tears flowed from Pepper's eyes, which were red and swollen. Violet edges framed them, clearly coming from punches. The nose was visibly broken and blood covered the whole face. The lips were cracked and a wound on her forehead festered and bleeded at the same time. She looked like she was about to fall over.

"What did I say?" Burkwill was pleased and addressed some people who were still on the other side of the bridge, while Tony was still trying to fight off the alien. Someone clapped over there and the mechanic struggled against tears again.

"Let her go, please," he pleaded. "You promised."

Burkwill raised his hand as if to say that he should be quiet. "One moment. You have not seen the best yet."

As if at a command, the two aliens stepped aside and another person stepped out from behind. "No," Tony whispered and then shouted, "No!"

He felt himself on the verge of panic attack. "You!" He shouted, putting all his hatred into the voice he dedicated to his teammate. " _You_ betrayed everyone? _You_ are the reason for what happened? _You?_ "

He could not believe it. His legs were about to give up and his hands were sweating heavily under the suit. His breathing was much too fast, so black spots formed in front of his eyes. The pain and guilt weighed down on his shoulders as he saw his own work standing in front of him.

"Vision, why?" he asked in a strangled voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will all be explained. At least, that's what I was trying to do. Just wait, okay?
> 
> Thank you so much, V_cameos, for your comment. It really meant a lot to me. 
> 
> I hope you all had a nice New Year's Eve?   
> The next chapter will be coming Saturday or Sunday.   
> Have a nice rest of your week!


	22. Chapter 22

It was his fault. It was all his fault and Tony knew it. He had created Vision, he had created the bombs and shells, and he had controlled too little.

The rain drummed on him and the street as Tony shouted at the traitor. He barely noticed Burkwill slapping his hand like a madman in the lap and laughing.

"You owe your existence to us, and you betray us? You gave information to a lunatic, _secret information,_ and you were in the same house as we were for months? You are a monster, nothing more and nothing less; a monster!"

His voice broke in the end as his eyes fell back on the five people kneeling before him. "I'm sorry," he told them softly, but Pepper shook his head.

"Why?" He shouted. "You had everything, Vision, everything! Do you even know into what danger you got everybody?"

He wanted to cry. It couldn’t be Vision. Not him. Not with Jarvis in him. It couldn’t be.

"Oh, oh," Burkwill interrupted. "You need to calm down. After all, nobody feels up to an unpleasant visit from the police, right? I think I've found the problem with you, Stark. You have said it again. The dear Vision has by no means put _everybody_ into danger, it was just you and the five poor souls in front of you. But even that wouldn't have been necessary if he had listened more to my orders." Burkwill grinned at Tony and Vision.

The Android lowered his head.

"Don't you even have the courage to look at me?" Tony shouted unimpressed by Burkwill's speech. "Look at me, you little piece of-"

"Quiet!" Shouted the lunatic now. He stepped closer to Tony and grinned as the mechanic fell silent. "Or you want that not all five, but only four of your comrades to get out of here? Or even less." He looked around. "Vision, are you still mad at me because of our disagreement? We said I forgive you and you forgive me."

He looked at Tony again and pointed his thumb at his former team-mate. "He was a bit stubborn with his opinion and we had a little misunderstanding. Look to Stark, be so kind, Vision.”

The nausea came up in Tony, but Vision took a quick look at him. He tried to take a deep breath but almost choked on himself. Injured and disappointed, he stared at Vision.

"Are you releasing the prisoners now?" He finally asked after a pause but did not turn away from Vision.

"What happened to the ‘we-look-each-other-into-the-eye’?"

Tony rolled his eyes inwardly and felt his cold lips start to tremble with rage. Nevertheless, he looked at Burkwill and repeated: "Will you release the prisoners now?"

The Briton smiled. "See. It’s just fine. _o'Kura-Zuraq ando dafan_ ," he said. Tony could understand that the man spoke to the brain again. The two aliens standing behind the four agents and Pepper suddenly moved. So, they belonged to the brain behind him. It could be the only one. Something like desperate hope flared up in Tony. With strong hands, the two aliens each clawed a prisoner. Wilson cried out for a moment as the claws pierced his shoulder, and Khatib could not help but moan. The two men were picked up and with heavy footsteps, the monsters began to carry them away. Pepper and the others remained sitting on the floor. Tony saw what was happening and panic flared up in him.

"Tree," he shouted frantically as the two men passed him.

"Pardon?" Burkwill asked with raised eyebrows.

"Three," Tony explained quickly. "Three. I get it that you don’t give all of them away at the same time. But at least three would have been appropriate." His voice trembled more than he wanted, and his heart beat unusually hard. It felt like it had slipped several feet down.

He desperately wanted to turn around, but the monster did not let him. That could not happen, Burkwill had promised him something else.

He heard the two men behind him being thrown to the ground behind the bridge. The aliens stopped where they were and Tony could only hope that Wilson and Khatib understood what he wanted to say.

"The two," explained Burkwill, "cannot walk anymore. Neither of them can, at least not fast. They will not get to your hiding place fast enough, even if they knew where it was. As I said, you do not have to hope. But obviously, you are not as optimistic as you always say. I thought I might surprise you if I didn't give out every agent."

Tony's eyes wandered to Vision. He did not know what he should do. He had used the situation to help the two agents, but as naive as it sounded, he had assumed Burkwill would release all the prisoners. Burkwill had judged him correctly.

_Of course, he had._ Tony felt the panic rising. He felt like a child – unable to do something. He wanted to cry.

"Pepper needs help," he finally said desperately. "You said I'm going to be an exchange for her."

"Yes, but I didn’t say at what time. You were here earlier than I expected," Burkwill admitted. "You are my present for midnight. By then, you four will stay with me and then they can all go one by one until I have just you, Stark, and my son has finally been avenged."

Tony stared at him. "Can I go to her?" He asked, trying to stay calm.

"Please," Burkwill replied, gesturing to her. "Just realize that your friends will all die if you make any attempt to flee. Oh, right, Stark."

Tony swallowed. He had known the danger, but such a threat was not something you just put away quickly.

"Get out of your suit. You cannot talk like that to a woman. So cold and ... metallic." Burkwill gestured and the monster let go of Tony. He stumbled forward a few steps before he could catch himself. He stared at Burkwill but then nodded. Without needing to do anything, his suit fell away and placed itself just a few seconds later as a suitcase next to him. Burkwill clapped and Tony ran to Pepper in his wet clothes.

"Hey," he said, trying to sound calm and strong as he knelt beside her. "It’ll be alright. You're out of here soon. You're all out soon," he said to the other two.

Lang and Dragenbach said nothing, the agent just nodded and Lang watched Tony closely. The mechanic had not forgotten what the younger man had said to him last time in that prison, but that did not interest him. It was important that his colleagues came out of here. _That Pepper came out of here._

"Peter!" Burkwill called. "Would you please get the cars ready to start? I think our guests are getting cold."

Tony, too, was cold, though he had been in the armor all the time. "Here," he mumbled and pulled off his jacket, which he immediately put over Pepper's quivering shoulders. His black T-shirt stuck to his body due to the water.

"Stay ready," Pepper whispered suddenly. Tony shook his head and pressed her head against his chin.

"I can't do anything. They would kill you."

"The tree," Pepper whispered weakly, just loud enough for Tony to hear. "Do you really have something -"

"I don't know why. It was stupid. It's going to put us in danger, but I'll take care of you, okay?" He whispered back. His throat felt thick, and swallowing was hard. He remembered that, as if out of reflex, he had thrown Friday's GPS system beside the tree as he climbed down. It was still off, but he had assumed that all five people got out. Pepper knew him well enough and would definitely search the area if she got out. She would be looking for a GPS system or a cell phone. He had hoped that the five would go to safety and then call for help. He had hoped that somehow it would all be alright, in the end.

It didn’t happen this way, and now, because of his naivety, he had endangered all of them again. If Wilson and Khatib found the signal and if the Avengers in the old house received it - if that happened and if they helped, then Pepper, Lang and Dragenbach would still be in huge danger. "I'm sorry," Tony whispered again.

"It's not your fault."

Tony shook his head and glanced at Vision, who was still standing only a few yards away. "It is," he admitted. Pepper did not answer.

"They understood," she said at some point after a while.

"What?"

"Wilson and Khatib. I know it. They understood you."

Tony turned around briefly and tried to look at the tree, but the only thing he saw were shadows. Still, the two aliens stood like stones in front of the bridge.

"What is there to see, Stark?" Burkwill asked suddenly, grinning at him from above.

"Nothing," he answered quickly. "But if you’re already here. How do you know that Stark Industries can still produce weapons? There are no more plans for weapons and normal ones will not help you with your rescue plan."

Tony looked up, rebuilt the façade. He trusted Pepper, and if Wilson and Khatib had really understood, they would need more time.

"Oh, good that you ask, Stark," Burkwill explained, gesturing to Tony to get up. Slowly he straightened up and found that he was actually smaller without his suit than the man next to him. "You never told anyone your secret plans from the lab, yes, I know that," he said, playing sadly. He came back uncomfortably close to Tony, but the mechanic did not back down. He could feel the breath on his face, but his eyes looked straight into the cold, blues of Burkwill. The three fingers of his remaining hand slowly stroked Tony's beard and his teeth crunched. Still, he did not move an inch.

Burkwill grinned as he slid his hand down again and reached into his pocket. His stomach touched Tony's as he moved slightly. The younger man tried to hide the shivering from the cold. He could feel exactly the eyes of the others on him as Burkwill pulled a pocket knife from his pants and opened it. Slowly he put it between the neck and shoulder of Tony but did not press yet. Almost as if he did not want to hurt him. He grinned and then shrugged, then squeezed the spikes in Tony's skin and removed the knife. It was red, but Tony did not flinch a bit.

"Bad blood value, am I right?" Burkwill asked. "Actually, just since the attack on Tom's River, but still bad. Of course, that does not bother you as long as you can go on working, Stark, but perhaps you should have paid more attention to your own health. Would it not be possible to use state-of-the-art nanotechnology to let small cameras and microphones flow through your veins?"

Tony's mouth opened and all his blood flowed from his head. Again, it felt like all his organs were sliding down his body. "No, not really. Unless," Burkwill grinned, "your name is James Burkwill and you have a lot of power and knowledge. But don’t worry, we have made sure that nothing happens to you. Did not you sometimes have a strange feeling in your throat? Probably consequences of our little test that Vision had performed."

Tony moved again for the first time. A stinging pain suddenly passed through his body, but he tried to ignore it. Vision looked down again as Tony stared at him. The feeling of tightness overcame him again and his chest moved sharply, but then his gaze fell back on Pepper, who was now leaning against Agent Dragenbach, looking as if she was about to fall into unconsciousness.

"That's why I cough?" Tony speculated.

Burkwill nodded, almost pride. "A side effect that we did not anticipate. I apologize. You know what? I would like to know where the cars are, I don't want you to get sick, Stark. Lady Elise?"

"Mr. Krum is already on his way back here. He will arrive at any moment," a woman's voice with a strong Scottish accent answered from the other side of the bridge. Burkwill made words in his mouth that looked like he was saying, "She's smart," or something, but Tony could not tell. He was thinking again. They needed a moment more time.

"We can’t," he said quickly.

"Say again?"

"We can’t get in the car. Pepper will collapse. We must help her now. If she’s not in good shape, I won’t do shit for you if she isn't okay."

Burkwill's look stiffened. "Somebody probably misunderstood something," he said softly. "I am the one who makes the demands. You, my dear, are just a gift."

Tony put everything on risk, he knew that. He needed the extra time, but it was risky to act so provocatively against Burkwill.

"But a damn important gift. Burkwill, you are a man of your words. You’ll release Lang and Dragenbach. Pepper won’t do you any good if she’s dead and I won’t do anything if you kill her."

Tony could see Burkwill pressing his jaw together before turning to his people. "Good," he called. "General Astif!"

Another man emerged from the group of followers. In the dark, Tony barely recognized the man, but he would think he came from the Middle East. The general knelt next to Pepper. Her eyes opened in a flickering panic and she looked at the man in front of her.

"Quiet," said Agent Dragenbach softly, turning her head to see Tony. He was still standing next to Burkwill, whose knife was dangerously close to his neck. The mechanic barely suppressed his anger and clenched his - probably blue - hands into fists as the General touched Pepper in various places to check her health. He spoke something in Arabic and Burkwill answered something and made waving gestures. Someone from the retinue came up to the general and put something in his hand. Tony did not know what it was at first, but Lang and Dragenbach could see it.

"What's that?" Lang asked immediately. Only now Tony could see a flash in the little light. "An injection?" He called. "What’s that going to be about?"

The _o'Kura-Zuraq_ roared behind Tony and the mechanic winced. Burkwill shouted something in the language of the creature, but Vision already answered Tony.

"An anaesthetic. It will relieve the pain and help the body to regenerate faster."

That was too much Tony. "Without you, she wouldn’t even have such pain, shut up, you mendacious, dirty piece of -"

"It's enough!", Burkwill called and hit Tony against the temple. The blow came unexpectedly and the mechanic fell screaming to the ground. "It's enough!", Burkwill repeated. There was a rushing sound in Tony's ears and he felt warm blood mingling with the cold rain and running down his face. The _o'Kura-Zuraq_ clawed at Tony and grabbed him painfully. Tony cried out for a moment, but then the creature pulled him to his feet with a force that almost made him collapse again if the claws would not stick in his shoulder. Mucus dripped onto his head and the creature murmured something over and over again. Tony whined as the thing tightened its grip. It felt like his shoulder was about to be ripped out.

"Great, you did it, Stark. The _o'Kura-Zuraq_ is overstrained. I'm not happy about that at all; I had something else to do with him. Kima, Xi, take care of it. General, are you ready soon? Would you please keep an eye on Stark?"

"I can supervise him," Vision interjected.

"So you change your damn mind again and let him go," Burkwill exclaimed angrily. And at the same time, Tony screamed, "You don’t touch me, no!"

Two new men came running from the bridge side toward Tony and forcibly tried to pull him away from the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ , but the claws were too deep in his skin. Tony screamed loudly and the alien did so, too, but it did not let go. Sweat formed on Tony’s forehead as the mechanic kneeled on the bridge.

"The alien won’t let go," said the younger of the two men.

"Oh, you sure about that?" Tony said sarcastically, earning a kick against the back by the same man. He could barely see what was happening through the rain and tears in his eyes, but the Asian-looking man pulled a big knife from his belt. He asked Burkwill something in Mandarin, who had calmed down a bit now but kept his eyes between Pepper and Tony. Burkwill answered curtly and the Asian explained something to the younger one - probably Kima - in English, which made little sense for Tony. He could only feel the claws digging deeper and deeper into his shoulder and certainly destroying something.

"Watch out for ... Pepper," he finally said, hoping Lang and Dragenbach could understand him, while words like "cutting off" and "letting go" reached his ears.

Then a metallic thump came from behind him and the creature screamed so loud that Tony's nape hair straightened up. It grabbed even tighter and Tony lost control of the muscles in his legs. For a brief moment he hung in the air, but then the blow sounded again and a muffling sound came to his ears as he fell the last few inches to the ground. His nose touched the ground first and cracked unnaturally, and then his shoulder fell on the severed hand of the monster. The alien continued to scream, and Burkwill gestured to them that they should go fast, but Tony tried to orient himself first. People were talking in confusion, and he understood nothing for a moment, but then two strong hands pulled him back to their feet and held him tight. Tony's muscles gave up, but the hands held him upright. Only slowly his vision cleared and he understood what had happened. The General was still kneeling beside Pepper, doing something, and Dragenbach watched closely, but Lang stared at Tony. With his mouth, he formed a question. "Are you okay?"

Tony nodded weakly and looked down at himself. His wet T-shirt was soaked with blood, and red hands held him under his armpits. He was glad that he could at least ruin one of Burkwill's people's day, but then he heard the familiar voice behind him. "Take a deep breath, Tony, it'll be better soon."

That did not help him, because the anger exploded inside him again and he wanted to tear himself away from Vision, but the Android did not let him. "Stay calm, breathe," he continued instead.

"You should have done the ‘being-nice’ before, so shut it," Tony pressed back, trying to escape. He could tell by the weight in his shoulder that the severed hand was still inside of him. Suddenly a loud noise came from behind him. He managed to turn his head enough that he could see the two smaller aliens fall over simultaneously. His brain worked. Did they just kill their own brain because it was ... overstrained?

"Take them away and then get the _o'Kura-Zuraq darif_ ," Burkwill ordered and turned to Tony. "Did we calm down then?"

Tony still felt the blood dripping from his nose and lips and from his temple. He had to offer a gruesome sight. Nevertheless, he nodded weakly. "Leave the hand in your shoulder. I don’t want you to complain anymore how bad you are. Your little friend will feel better soon. Are you satisfied now?"

Again, Tony just nodded, trying once more to pull away. His eyes fell on the suitcase, which was his armor, and still stood only a few yards away. He coughed. Water flowed into his mouth and he choked, but the coughing sensation did not stop.

"Oh, someone looked up what you've been doing recently," Burkwill said. "Aren't miniature cameras not great? Sorry about the coughing thing, that makes the whole thing a bit uncomfortable."

Tony could not stop and choked again, but nothing left his mouth.

"Let it stop," said Lang suddenly. Tony choked.

"Haven't you just noticed what happens when I am given orders?" Burkwill asked sourly.

Lang swallowed. "He cannot breathe."

At that moment, the coughing ceased for a moment, and Tony breathed in panic, only to cough again. When he strangled again, he vomited and Burkwill turned away. "Disgusting," he muttered. "Who watched him for so long that this could happen?"

He shouted to his people. Slowly, he walked to Tony. "General Astif, water please," he said to the man who had just gotten up from Pepper. Immediately, the man ran to fulfil the task. Almost caring, Burkwill tapped Tony on the back with his remaining fingers. He flinched for a moment as the man struck the spot where he just got kicked, but then he tried to calm down again. If the others were going to turn up, it had to happen now, he knew that, because if those crazy people could really see what he was doing, then they'd certainly watched the drop of the GPS transmitter from earlier. General Astif came running with water that Tony drank thirstily. "Dragenbach and Lang need some, too," Tony squeezed out, drinking about half of the bottle. He desperately tried to win time. It had been a mistake to drop the transmitter, he knew that now. He was too far away from Pepper and the other two to protect her in any way, and at any moment Burkwill would find out what he had done. And then the other three were dead.

"No," the Brit grinned. Another man came running toward him. He looked about the same age as Burkwill. "There you are, Peter," he said. "That took a long time."

"I had to persuade the police that an accident happened at the Lieutenant Callahan Tunnel," he replied. Tony closed his eyes. The tunnel was in the north of the city, and if Burkwill had such means, his followers could certainly organize a huge show that would keep the press and police away from them for a long time.

"The cars are ready. But maybe you would want to know something before, James," Peter Krum said more quietly, pointing meaningfully at Tony. The last bit of color disappeared from his face and, appropriately, he heard the thunder of heavy footsteps behind him. He did not have to turn around to realize that another _o'Kura-Zuraq_ stood behind him. The first's hand still jammed in his shoulder, stopping at least some blood leaking.

"Are all traces removed?" Burkwill asked as Kima and Xi returned. "The bodies are gone, our nice buddy here will not notice," said the younger man, pointing to the _o'Kura-Zuraq_.

"What happened?" Burkwill asked Krum, visibly satisfied.

"Henry Bolton has just reviewed Stark's records. Our nice friend here just dropped a GPS transmitter under the tree."

Tony felt the hit before he saw it. Although Burkwill did not have a full hand, he was really strong. Tony staggered back and was only stopped by Vision from falling to the ground. "Please," he murmured, spitting blood. "It wasn’t turned on. I didn't know that. He must have been out. It was an accident."

Burkwill made a small gesture and then ran back to his other prisoners. Kima ran from the bridge. "Please, it's going to be a mistake, too, if I stumble straight into your dear colleagues while I hold the knife. Oh, Stark, you made a huge mistake. Pray that the transmitter is still there or you are in huge trouble."

Every form of amusement had slipped from Burkwill's eyes. He shouted something and several of the smaller aliens entered the bridge. Tony swallowed. That was many. Every few yards some aliens stood and stared at the lake. Burkwill had built a living wall within seconds of more than fifteen aliens.

At this moment Tony knew that he was never going to see Steve again.

"There is no electronic signal from that spot," Kima said as he stormed back onto the bridge. "But footprints of two people. One limps. They were looking for something and then ran away. Should I pursue them?"

Tony's heart was throbbing too fast and he was sweating heavily, even if he was cold. Burkwill put his head into his hands, just for a moment. Just for a moment, everything was too quiet.

Then everything happened at once.

With a loud cry, Burkwill rammed the knife into Lang's shoulder, who screamed instantly. Tony pulled himself out of the hands of Vision, who didn’t even attempt to hold him back, but stood there stunned. At the same time, he opened his suitcase and set up the Iron Man armor that flew directly to Pepper, who was still asleep, while Dragenbach jumped up and pushed Burkwill back. Kima yelled something in the language of the aliens, and the Iron Man armor that controlled itself grabbed the writhing Scott Lang. The aliens screamed, and some people fired with some weapons, but Friday maneuvered the armor out of the fight. Dragenbach had jumped up and stood back to back with Tony, his fists in the air. Burkwill pulled himself up and cuffed dirt from his suit-pants.

"Oh, Stark," he murmured, "you're dead."

The aliens turned to face the two men in the middle of the bridge and Tony could hear a load of weapons loading as Dragenbach turned to him and tore the alien hand from his shoulder. Tony screamed and could only see blurry for a moment, but the agent dragged him along and knocked the long claw of the dead _o'Kura-Zuraq_ at the head of a baffled, smaller alien. Screaming, he jumped over the boundary of the bridge and made sure that Tony flew with him when the shots fell. While the two men were leaping, the mechanic could see something gray racing past him, but then he fell through the surface of the cold water.

His clothes were even more water-filled than he thought was possible, and his shoulder exploded with pain. For a moment, Tony thought he did not have the strength to kick his legs and swim to the surface of the lake, which moved away from him at a great speed. There was a rush in his ears and he suddenly had memories of Afghanistan, so he was panting with panic. He choked and coughed, but at that moment a hand grabbed him and pulled him up with enormous force. When Tony broke through the water, he was in a cave.

Only after a moment did he realize that he was just under the bridge, bullets landed close to him and someone pushed him down again. Somewhere a man screamed and the shelling stopped for a moment, only then did Tony's perception clear up. Dragenbach knelt beside him on the shore and loaded a weapon that he must have picked up from the ground, and a shadow danced with a shield. Tony coughed and blinked again to clear his mind.

"Steve?" He asked feebly. The soldier fended off another bullet and threw himself to Tony on the ground, behind a rock. "Thank goodness," the soldier murmured, pointing to the rock. "Put this on."

"I should -" Tony asked in surprise. Only then did he realize that the supposed rock was a suitcase that was just starting to suit him up. "What about Pepper?" He shouted in panic.

"She’s safe. We got the emergency call."

At that moment, the mask dropped over Tony's head and he was Iron Man.


	23. Chapter 23

Tony, Steve and Dragenbach ran out from under the bridge and stood directly in front of two smaller aliens. Dragenbach reacted immediately and fired his gun into the face of the first of those things, causing it to fall to the ground, and Steve punched the shield in the unprotected neck of the other alien. As they ran up the small hill to the bridge Tony could hardly believe what he saw. He could make out Clint, who was standing on a tree and firing arrows, while Natasha and some agents fired at the little aliens that could be dangerous to them. Barnes stood nearby and knocked a monster to the ground. Somewhere above them Rhodey flew and fired at the _o'Kura-Zuraq_. The brain was now surrounded by smaller aliens who seemed to protect him and Burkwill had also people and aliens surrounding him.

"Stop," he screamed suddenly, so loud that everyone heard it. For a moment, Tony stopped running, but Steve grabbed him and pulled him into safe hiding. "I have Vision," Burkwill continued. "Lay down your arms, or he dies."

"He's a mendacious, filthy, disgusting piece of sh-" Tony shouted, earning amazed looks from his teammates, but Burkwill interrupted him.

"Oh no," he called in a deep voice.

Through his cover, Tony could see Vision kneeling in front of the British, several weapons pointed at him and the stone in his head while Burkwill held a knife to his neck. "Come on, tell them why you're here," Burkwill told Vision.

"He's been giving information to Burkwill all along," Tony told Steve, knowing that the others could all overhear him via intercom. "He has the whole time - I could have known it. I created him, shit."

Tony saw the horror in Steve's eyes and heard Clint whisper something that sounded like a curse. Friday switched Tony into the other's voice system just when Clint ended.

"Because I've been working for you all the time," Vision said loudly, and again Tony became mad. It had become unnaturally quiet, but the mechanic just wanted to jump up and kill the two people on the other side of the bridge. Even though he had to go through a lot of extraterrestrials and a hail of bullets.

"Oh no," Burkwill called. "Tell them why you're really here. Make sure Stark suffers - that he's going to suffer terribly when I cut your mendacious neck."

Tony shook his head almost imperceptibly. There was nothing he would rather see than that. He was startled by himself, but the anger kept coming back.

Burkwill took the initiative, he spoke in a completely crazy voice. "The headquarters of you are unprotected. I could have gone in for the last three months and just killed you, Stark. You are a wreck, mentally and physically. It would not have been a hassle to fulfil my promise to my people or to avenge my children. But your friend here found me and convinced me that there are other ways. And I actually trusted him!"

Tony could look out of his hiding place to Burkwill and saw that he was talking madly into the air. As if the man was completely crazy since the Avengers were here. "And then I find out that your friend plans and co-organizes the return of the other Avengers all the time. Why? Because he wanted to save you, Stark. Says you are lost without your team. So, I make sure he has to work for me, otherwise, you're dead. I could have killed you. Over Tom's River, in the cave, in your sickbed, in your workshop. I gave you more weeks than I originally intended. And how does Vision thank me? Gives you information that you are not supposed to get, endangers the whole plan, even does not seem to be able to bring the other Avengers to sleep!"

Vision screamed in pain as Burkwill squeezed the knife into his throat. "He endangered everything. He has been protecting you all the time, and, I must admit, even so well that even I have not seen it. Until just now. And he will have to pay for it now. And you will be ashamed all your life that you have let a loyal friend to die."

"Fuck," Tony and Steve muttered at the same time. Burkwill laughed and Tony looked at the soldier in front of him. Tony felt like his organs all just searched for a new place. He felt sick.

"Stop!", he called and got up. "Release him, you want me!" He said. He knew that the others were getting ready behind him. "He still passed information behind our backs. He has betrayed us and SHIELD and he has betrayed the United States. He will come to court. But you want me. Let's try another exchange, Burkwill."

Vision tried to push away from the knife and seemed to want to say something but Burkwill kept his mouth shut. Tony's eyes were on the android. He did not know what to think - if what he did was wrong right now, or all the time.

"Yes, yes. You get him, and then he fights for you and you all attack us. No. No, Stark, things are different now." Suddenly the man had calmed down again. Out of the mad laugh, a scheming smile had formed. "Do you think I'm that stupid?"

Tony was barley ten yards from the man, alone on the bridge. The little aliens were all around the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ , who were now behind Burkwill, and Burkwill's knife buried itself in Visions neck.

"No, that's not me. You are predictable. You all are. Oh yes. I was even able to foresee Vision's stupid game. I knew that he would finally betray me today. I knew you would want to save him for his heroism."

"Tony, get away," a voice whispered in Tony's ear at the same time. Steve's voice. And Tony knew that the soldier was right. Something would happen, he felt it, but he could not move his suit. "Friday, what's going on?" he asked in panic.

"I don’t know, boss. It seems that the suit is magnetically tied to the bridge. I can’t control it."

"Tony, get away," said other voices in his ear.

"I can’t," he whispered desperately. He closed his eyes.

He could still see Burkwill grinning. "I lied to you, Stark. Tomorrow is not my son's birthday. He became thirty _today_."

 

Tony was only marginally aware of the explosion. He felt more like the gravitation was reversing and suddenly he was under fire. He felt the pressure that made his eardrums quiver and he felt that he could not breathe when he was thrown against a tree with full force. For a moment he saw nothing, then he heard the beeping in his ear. The next moment he choked again and felt Friday open his helmet so that more air could flow into his lungs. The beeping was interspersed with shots and screams. And a roar that made him feel pure panic. Tony vomited before he could do something. He nodded weakly as his eyes blurred again and it turned black.

It felt like a second after which he was shaken up again. He sensed he was still in the suit but was completely disoriented. Friday had to have taken control because he just fell from the top down on the park, which was now in many places under fire. He scanned the park with his eyes, looking for the spot where Burkwill might be, or the _o'Kura-Zuraq._ His chest was shaking with panic, and again he felt the coughing sensation, but then he could finally regain control of his suit.

He headed straight for a cluster of smaller aliens. He loaded his weapons and fired, but despite the energy behind them, only one of the creatures fell to the ground. Tony chased past them to get a better picture of the situation.

Vision was immobilized on the bridge, and enemies stood behind him, seeking cover. A wave of emotions came over Tony. The Android had betrayed him, but then only wanted to protect him and now he was probably killed. Anger and joy, disgust and respect flooded through him, but he could not really decide what to feel. He quickly turned away from the lifeless body.

He could nowhere see Burkwill but saw that both Steve and Bucky swam through the lake and were protected by Rhodey. Maybe they had seen something, Tony mused and flew to meet them. "Where?" He just shouted, assuming that the others understood what he meant.

Steve and Bucky were sprinting out of the water behind a cover. "There," called the latter. "In the tank."

Tony almost choked. Burkwill had actually got a tank into the city center. He landed next to the two soldiers. "Are you alright?" Steve asked quickly. Tony nodded under the mask, even though he was still sick and hurt, but this was about something bigger than that. The soldier's blue eyes lay on him for a long moment and seemed to analyze him closely. Worry and fear lay in them. Tony turned to the battlefield.

Burkwill had expected everything, made it into a real show. Again, a torrent of nausea came up in him, but he could swallow the feeling. His brain started working again. They had to do something unexpected. Something not even Burkwill could foresee, who seemed to know everything. Who had played a role, perhaps only for the drama.

Tony stared at the bridge, where still several aliens were positioned. Some of the little beasts had broken out and were now running toward the groups of agents and Avengers with a helicopter circling overhead. "Is Fury working on them?" He shouted into the microphone.

"He’s on it," answered Natasha immediately. Tony nodded and flew up again, after one last look at Steve and Bucky. "I'll take care of the tank," he shouted to them. "Rhodes!"

Immediately his friend flew to the American tank and loaded his weapons. "There are good updates in there," Rhodey called to Tony, who merely nodded as the energy repulsors charged. "On three!", he called and began to count.

At the same time, several bullets from the War Machine's armor and Tony's energy blasts shot at the tank. A loud explosion was to be heard and Rhodey and Tony were thrown backwards. "Shit", Rhodey shouted and Tony cursed as well. 

"Looks like nanotechnology", he mumbled but was sure his friend understood him. His arm hurt. His shoulder felt like shit. He cursed again. "Fuck", Rhodey said again and said exactly what Tony thought. 

A small alien stung his leg and narrowly missed him. "Fucking shit. Has anyone seen the brain of the things?" Rhodey shouted. He flew a little further into the air when bullets narrowly missed him. "On the bridge, under the corpse mountain," Clint replied quickly. "Can you bomb them away?"

Tony nodded without thinking again. That fight would cost him a lot of money again, but it was worth it. Again, his repulsors loaded and Rhodey flew around him to protect him from larger guns.

A part of the bridge had already collapsed anyway due to the explosion. Tony aimed at the big corpse and shot. He gave a slight twitch as the rest of the bridge collapsed with a loud crash, sending waves on the lake, which everything but calm at this moment. The creatures roared and screamed and beat with their arms, but did not seem to be able to swim. Without waiting longer, Tony shot forward, knowing that Rhodey was following him. Friday scanned the targets in the water and then indicated that the big creature, the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ , was still under water. The smaller aliens even moved back to him, their only job was to protect the brain. But Tony was faster. His repulsor took a moment to recharge, but then the energy beam struck the water and hit something. Several of the aliens on the water surface roared with pain, but then the larger head of the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ erupted from the water and a deafening scream pierced the battlefield.

"You got him, Tony," Rhodey screamed. With a loud splash, the creature finally fell over and became silent. But the cheers of others abruptly stopped. "What the ...", Tony asked himself more than anyone else.

None of the aliens around the _o'Kura-Zuraq_ fell dead as the brain died. Suddenly they began to fight their way out of the water, with a power and speed that was unimaginable before. Several of the creatures ran straight for Steve and Bucky, barely a dozen yards from the bridge, completely delivered to the monsters.

"There are more brains," Clint stated loudly, shooting simultaneously with arrows at the attacking smaller aliens. "The things are controlled by another one. Tony, Rhodey, can you see it?"

But Tony did not look for it. His eyes fell on Steve and Bucky, who were frantically seeking better cover. Aliens were coming from everywhere, probably fifty more than before. Not only the two soldiers were encircled, but the other Avengers as well. From every corner of the park, monsters rushed in, roaring and shouting and beating their claws and throwing stones at the Avengers.

"Shit," Tony mumbled, steering his suit towards the two soldiers, who were probably in deep trouble. With his repulsor, he put down two aliens, but more of the things came crawling from all corners of the park. There were holes in the ground as the critters came rushing out of there. Steve and Bucky were pushed further and further in the direction of a tree. Tony wanted to fly in to get them out, but the aliens grabbed him and he had to dodge. He could not fly in from above because the tree was too old, too dense, for him to get through.

"Clint, can you support them?" He shouted to the archer. He took a last look at Steve and Bucky, who were now crowding into the thick tree and fighting. Again and again, aliens fell and made getting through harder for the next ones, but not impossible. The shield and arm pierced the unprotected areas and killed the aliens, but by no means enough of them.

Tony flew further into the air. "Friday, can you see the brain?", he shouted to the AI. She scanned but could not give him a result. Again, Tony flew down, killing two of the aliens. The pain in his shoulder was completely forgotten as he manoeuvred himself through trees and avoided the aggressive aliens. At the edge of the park, Tony could see flashing lights that came from cameras. _Stupid fucking reporters, stay inside, just stay fucking safe._  He did not do anything about them. He quickly dodged a stone that had passed dangerously close to his arc reactor.

"Do you have anything, Rhodes?" he exclaimed while flying, but the other one said no.

"Natasha thought she saw something behind the ice cream truck. She is encircled, but I'm trying to get there."

Tony grunted in agreement and flew back to the center of the park. Steve and Bucky were still fighting, but by now they already had a kind of protective wall of dead bodies. Clint's arrows were in several of them, but right now, he stopped shooting. "They're cutting my tree down," he shouted in panic and waved to Tony. Below him, some of the aliens stood and dragged and dragged at the old tree, and some again sought out stones from the exploded bridge to throw them.

"Hang on, Clint," Tony shouted, racing straight for the man. The other groaned in pain as he was pressed against the fast moving Iron Man armor, but Tony had no time to slow down. His suit slumped briefly and Clint pulled him closer, but still one of the creatures tore the archers foot down. "Fuck," he shouted.

Tony boosted the pressure of his repulsors, but it did not help.

"He won’t let go," Clint cried in panic. He slipped on the wet armor of the Iron Man and Tony had to use both hands to hold the archer. Suddenly the alien let go and the two shot up, relieved with exhalation.

"My pleasure," Natasha said through the coms.

Clint was still clinging to Tony's armor. "She's the best," he shouted to the wind and was dropped off on the overturned ice cream truck.

"Are you all right?" Tony asked again. Clint nodded and pulled his bow out again. "Everything’s great. Thanks."

 

As he flew back, he saw that Wanda was trying to help Steve and Bucky, but was distracted again and again. Dragenbach was standing next to her and several other agents tried to protect her, but the aliens were just too many.

"Rhodey, you got something?" He shouted to his friend. The situation was critical, they could not fight for a long time anymore. Friday had repeatedly warned him that he was still bleeding and it would soon be dangerous. But Tony could not stop.

Maybe Burkwill had looked up to this and even made a show of it, but Tony was sure he could not foresee such a fight. The Brit was still sitting in his tank, defying all attacks, probably even with the most up-to-date technology that Tony himself had developed for his next suit. He knew the man could have used his technology if he was able to get all those information, but the shield still could not last forever. But too long. They had to find the brain and then get Burkwill out of there.

"Nothing," Rhodey called frantically. Tony saw his buddy battling with several creatures while bullets flew at him.

"Up, Rhodes," he shouted to him. One of Burkwill’s fighters was loading a weapon that was too big for the armor to withstand. The other responded quickly and intuitively. A tree behind him went up in flames after a loud bang.

Tony flew back to the bridge and paused. Vision shifted weakly and straightened up on the last remnant of the transition. "Shit," Tony murmured again and looked around. The aliens on this side of the lake were all rushing in on Steve and Bucky, and the humans had long since taken up the fight against the Avengers and agents on the other side of the lake. Tony landed with a crash next to Vision, who looked at him disoriented.

"I just wanted to protect you," he explained, but Tony waved. "There's time for that later." Tony saw a gaping wound on the neck of Vision and wondered how much the Android could endure.

A human being would already be dead now, he knew that.

Vision shook his head. He spoke weakly. "Is not it. I wanted to give something back for being picked up. I wanted to bring the others back because you need them. You need the captain. But more important is that everyone else needs you, Tony."

Vision coughed, and Tony looked around frantically. He did not have time for such a conversation and was not really able to respond. He did not know what he should feel about Vision. "We have to get out of here, right now," he tried to distract, but again the other struggled.

"You hold the team together, Tony. I'm sorry for what I did. I was promised something else."

"It's okay," the mechanic answered frantically, even if it was not okay. "We have to go, we can help you. And we have to find the brain."

"In the tank," whispered Vision, too weak to speak normally. "I overheard him, he rebuilt the tank. Inside is just enough room for a small _o'Kura-Zuraq_ and one or two people. But the tank’s ... "

"Protected," Tony finished the sentence. "Did you hear?" He asked everyone else. Rhodey agreed and Bucky called out of breath "Just be fast!".

"The shield will last at least two or three hours if you do not damage the generator. It’s probably inside the tank."

For a brief moment, no one answered, then Tony heard Clint's "Fuck" clearly.

"I'll go," he decided. It was still his fault, he knew it. He would have to end the fight. "Tony, no!" Shouted at least three people at the same time, but he knew he had to do it.

He straightened quickly, but one hand grabbed his leg. With beating hearts and too much adrenaline in his body, Tony looked down. "I’ll do it," Vision said weakly. "I cannot get out of here anyway."

Tony stared at him for a moment. Below him lay a man who had betrayed him and brought his friends and colleagues into an incredible danger. The people had died because Vision had not spoken earlier. Vision responded to Tony's stare and pulled himself up against the other's armor. "Take me to him," he said weakly, clinging to Tony.

Even though he had betrayed him, the mechanic felt bad as he carried his own dying creation across the battlefield. Rhodey came flying to him and secured his back while Tony came to a stop on the back of the tank. With his repulsor, he defeated an alien who had seen him and got ready for the others, who stood guard over the tank and came running up to him. Rhodey came to a stop beside him, handing a grenade to Vision without words. Tony could feel the hatred that, despite everything, went from his friend to the android. Vision hobbled quickly. Rhodey and Tony were in the field fighting. Sweat was running in his helmet as the mechanic turned and saw three other creatures running towards him. With his energy beams he switched off two of them at the same time, but the third one kept coming towards him. The claws had stretched out and ready to strike. Tony was in shock. Maybe everything had become too much for him, but he could not react anymore.

 _Vision is going to fucking_ die _!_ He could not do anything about it but just watched as the alien ran toward him. Vision came closer to the tank with every second. Tony's mouth opened a bit as he tried to stop his former colleague. He knew he had to do something, this was not Visions fight.  _He did everything so wrong and so right. Fuck. Fuck, fuck._

At that moment, Rhodey turned and shot the creature, which fell over immediately and lie twenty centimeters in front of Tony. He was torn from his stupor. "Thanks," he said quickly, his voice cracking as he shot down a fighter who was aiming for Vision with a gun. The Android had arrived at the tank and turned around again.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Take care of the stone."

And with that, the man pulled himself on the tank and pulled on the grenade. It was only a matter of seconds before it exploded, and Vision estimated it exactly. He took no chances, but kept the grenade in his hand. More and more of the creatures came and shot at him, Rhodey or Tony, and it was getting harder and harder to stop.

Then, with all the strength he could muster, Vision opened the hood of the shell and threw the grenade into it.

At that moment Tony knew that Burkwill had expected everything. But not someone who gave his life to protect others. The desperate cry of a man from the tank sufficed as confirmation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> Sorry for not posting at the weekend. I kind of didn't realise it was that short. Two days aren't enough. 
> 
> I really, really hope that all of this makes at least a little bit of sense. And I hope that everything is alright with the tags. 
> 
> Actually, I just realised that there is only one more chapter after his and an epilogue. So, we are pretty much on the end of the story. Yeah. 
> 
> Thank you so much, ima, for your comment. It's nice to hear that you liked this story! 
> 
> The next chapter will hopefully be out next weekend. I wish you all a nice week!


	24. Chapter 24

The explosion was loud and powerful. Both Tony and Rhodey were thrown back. Just like before, the mechanic only heard the beeping in his ear. Then it was suddenly dead quiet.

It took a while, but Tony heard the fire and ambulance sirens before he could open his eyes again. He lay on the muddy ground. Water splashed beside him and Friday opened his mask so that cold rain fell on his face. People ran around and suddenly someone threw himself next to him and frantically said his name.

Only slowly did Tony's thoughts clear.

"I didn't expect to have developed a disposable suit," he grinned weakly at Steve. The soldier pulled him up, but Tony groaned. He could see several injuries on the other's face, but now that the fight was over, a tremendous pain came to the fore. His shoulder throbbed and felt like it was falling off at any moment.

"The last time I woke up like this, Steve, I wanted to eat something," he muttered, feeling the blood loss already. The words were not as fluent as usual. Steve pulled him out of the armor that was assembling and looked at him exhausted. "Nothing has changed."

The other man laughed, somewhere between relief and surprise, then heaved him up. Black dots formed in Tony's field of vision and only then could he feel the other arm holding him. Natasha and Steve dragged him to a helicopter that was landing. Tony limped alongside, but could hardly stand on his feet. He was looking for Rhodey.

His friend had been right next to him during the blast, why was not he here now? The huge force had destroyed the whole tank, including the inside. A shiver ran down Tony's back; he remembered that Rhodey had been a little closer to the vehicle. Frantically, he tore his head to the side as far as his shoulder allowed. His eyes fell on Natasha, who said something he could not hear. She looked tense, but clearly spoke something reassuring. Steve's arm tightened around his chest. The ground was muddy and slippery and Tony almost fell if the two had not grabbed him. He felt more and more blood dribbling from his wound on his shoulder and felt the hand that Steve pressed on it to stop the bleeding. It hurt, but he felt the warmth that emanated from the other as he felt frozen. He felt the strange desire to run alongside Steve like this for a while, feeling his hand on his shoulder.

But still, it was not the time for it. His mouth was furry and his neck hurt so he cleared his throat.

"Rhodey," he said, and had to stop, for a torrent of nausea came over him and he choked. Natasha and Steve made him lean forward a bit, but nothing left his empty belly.

"Rhodes?" He repeated, louder this time so his two assistants responded. With their hands they pointed to the helicopter in front of them and a bunch of people in there. Words that could mean something like "Everything's good" came to Tony's ears, which were now whistling and roaring again.

At last, he could see Bucky and Clint helping Rhodey into the helicopter. A wave of relief flooded Tony and again he nearly stumbled. With every yard he went, he felt a little weaker. His shoulder ached all the more, the harder Steve pressed onto it and he did not have to fool himself: tears left his eyes in pain. At least it's still raining, he thought to himself, but then they reached the helicopter and Wanda gave him a trembling hand, which he gratefully gripped. More hands grabbed him and pulled him under the armpits, but he could not assign them. His shoulder was released, only for someone to squeeze it again the next moment, and the pain chased him anew. He barely felt the syringe put in his arm.

His eyes grew blurry and darker, but he could still see the sound of rifle shots. He flinched and the pressure on his shoulder grew bigger, then people screamed and one hand let him go so that he fell back and almost hit the floor very hard if someone else had not stopped him. His blurry look could have fallen on the back of Steve's head, but he could not match it, because the person ran away, shouting something, which made no sense.

 

The next time he woke up, he was back in the hospital bed he had been lying in a few weeks ago. Carefully, he opened his eyes and tried to understand what he saw.

The sun was shining again, but next to him was Steve sitting in a small chair. He looked at him. His face was pale and sunken, with many wounds, but he smiled wearily at him. Tony could not resist a relieved breath.

"Blueberries?" Steve asked, holding up a box of these. Tony barely noticed the other man's voice trembling, but grinned weakly and got up. His shoulder was bandaged and thumping, but otherwise, most of the pain had passed. There were patches and bandages all over, but it did not hurt much.

"How many analgesics did they give to me?" He asked Steve. He felt like his brain needed time to process everything.

"A lot. You really got hurt very badly."

Tony nodded and thought a moment too long. Steve looked at him worriedly. Those blue eyes seemed to pierce him.

"Then it’s their fault if that doesn’t work out now," he finally whispered, pulling the soldier down to him.

Steve made a frightened sound, but then their lips rested and fireworks seemed to explode in Tony. He paused for a moment, waiting for a reaction from the other. His heart was pounding almost painfully and the blood rushed in his ears with excitement, as he had not known in years. They were only a few inches apart, but Tony could still feel the slight smile of the other.

This time, Steve bridged the gap.

The kiss was hesitant at first, but then it changed. Tony was all the fear he had felt the last few hours and knew Steve understood him. The other's hands were warm and strong on his head and his unharmed shoulder, giving exactly what Tony Stark needed: love and confidence.

His brain stopped working, Tony thought. He had closed his eyes and felt only the touch on his lips, until Steve broke away to take a breath. He still felt the other's taste on him.

Tony breathed heavily as he opened his eyes again and looked at the soldier.

"I won't say it's the painkillers fault," Tony whispered.

Without further ado, he pulled Steve back down into a hug. He pressed his head into the crook of his shoulder and enjoyed the silence.

"I didn’t think that would happen at some point," he admitted quietly.

"Me neither," Steve whispered back.

"I thought of you while I was waiting for Burkwill," Tony said quietly. "I thought about what else I should have told you. In the jet. Or in the cave, or in Sokovia. When he was there, I knew it was too late. There were so many." Tony took a breath, trying to dispel the images and the fear from his memory. "Thank you for coming."

"Already in Sokovia?"

"Even when I was five, Rogers," Tony replied quickly. The smell of Steve hit him in the nose. "But yes, in Sokovia, too."

"I'm sorry, because ... you know. Siberia."

Tony shook his head. "I forgave you long ago. If you came back a week later, it would have been okay." He laughed sarcastically. "There was only my ego that was to big to call you. Still, you could have told me about my parents earlier," Tony tried to joke, but it fell flat. Steve froze, as if afraid.

"I'm sorry," he explained, but Tony interrupted him.

"It’s fine. It's over. I reacted wrong. They are dead."

Steve did not answer but held the mechanic in his arms.

"Zemo’s dead," he said in the end. His voice was flatter than usual, and Tony frowned. That did not make sense to him. What did Zemo have to do with this?

"He ran amok. He just came out of some hiding place when we got you to the helicopter. Bucky is ... He's still in mortal danger. Zemo just shot randomly, he would have hit you if Buck had not been there. I ran after him."

Tony's eyes focused on a point on the ceiling. He had heard the shots in the end. Zemo wanted to shoot him, but Bucky had been in between. He had saved him and was in great danger, as so many other people were because of him.

"I'm sorry," Tony managed to whisper. He pressed his head tighter against Steve and pressed his hand against the muscular back of the larger.

"Zemo shot Natasha too, but then he ran. I did have him ... I didn’t mean to harm him that badly, but he was screaming things, Tony." Steve's voice broke and Tony felt more helpless than ever. "He said you would always be a murderer and never really love someone without seeking profit. I could not ... I was so angry. It's not right, Tony, okay? What he said is not true."

Without being able to prevent it, tears had searched the way down his cheeks. He sensed that Steve was no different. But he also knew that Steve was not so upset about the words of Zemo, but about his friend. "We have the best doctors in the world, Steve. Bucky’ll be well again, he- "

"He got three shots in the back. From a madman who worked for another maniac. Even if he survives, he might never - "

Steve released his hand from Tony's back to wipe his face. The mechanic took the opportunity and pushed away from him. Steve's eyes were red and swollen when Tony looked at him. "Seventy years ago, the world had thought that Captain America died, forever. And yet you are here. And Bucky, too. You have both been frozen for a lifetime. He can get a few bullets, Steve. Hey, do you want to go to him? That might help."

But Steve shook his head. Again tears came from his eyes. "He’s in surgery again. He was gone. Completely. Nobody's allowed in."

"Fuck," Tony finally mumbled. He probably has never felt so helpless. His own feelings of guilt were forgotten and the pain, too. Tony did not want to know how Steve had felt the last few hours, with his best friend in surgery and in mortal danger. And yet he had been sitting here when he woke up. Strangely enough, Tony felt proud and felt a feeling he had not allowed for ages: love.

"He'll wake up again," he finally tried to reassure Steve. "I have to clarify a few things with him. And besides, he has not watched all of the Star Wars movies yet. So ... he can’t go. "

There was a slight smile on Steve's face that did not reach his eyes. He nodded. "Okay."

Tony just wanted to hold on to Steve at the moment, but someone knocked on the door and the soldier sat upright. Tony reached for his hand.

Clint slowly opened the door. "Steve, are you coming up, we have - Oh, hello Tony. You are awake," he stated. His eyes fell on the hands that lay on top of each other, but he did not comment. "We have just received a video. It's still being decrypted, but you should be there while watching."

He turned around once more before leaving the door. "You fought very well, Tony."

"Thanks," he replied, though the agent had long gone out. "How long was I away?"

"About four hours. Pepper was here before, but the doctors sent her away to rest."

"How's she?" It hit Tony like a blow that he had not thought about his best friend since he woke up. His thoughts had been with Steve. He felt the fear come back, but Steve squeezed his hand a little tighter. "She's fine so far."

He groaned briefly and Tony knew that it must be terrible for him. It had been Tony's fight and Steve did not have to be there, and yet the only person among them who was really in danger was his best friend. Tony felt bad. "I'm sorry," he wanted to whisper, but no words left his mouth.

Steve stood up. "We should go. Can you walk?"

Tony sat down on the side of the bed and saw only black for a moment, then his field of vision cleared and he grabbed Steve's arm. Carefully, he set his feet on the cold floor and slipped into shoes that were positioned there. Groaning, he stiffened and staggered, but Steve held him tightly. Reluctantly, he put an arm around Tony, and he let it happen. He immediately sensed the warmth emanating from the other and the strong grip that kept him from falling over. It was a bit difficult at first, but then Tony got used to his own load again and walking was easier. They walked slowly down the hall and got into the elevator, Tony a little more exhausted than he would like to admit.

"And Vision is ...", he finally asked, what was going on in his mind all the time. He did not finish the question. Steve would understand him.

The soldier nodded absently and looked at the smaller one. "But Burkwill, too. He had not expected that. It's over."

In the mirror, Tony could see how pale he was and how many wounds stretched across his face. Exhausted, he leaned against Steve, who put his arms on his uninjured shoulder. Tony reached for his hand as if to show him he was there. That Steve did not have to worry about Bucky alone.

But then the doors opened and Tony pushed away from Steve. The soldier helped him out into the nearly empty living room. Clint was talking softly to someone on the phone, and Wanda looked motionless out of the window she was sitting on the floor before. Tony's eyes stayed with her for a moment. He knew she had a special relationship with Vision. Another person who had to suffer because of him. He would make sure that Vision positive intentions were being published, not the negative ones. He owed that to her.

More Avengers were not there yet, but a reddish-blond head of hair caught Tony's eye.

The woman sat on the couch and read something.

"Pepper," Tony breathed relieved and hobbled as fast as he could to his friend. Steve let him go and the mechanic dropped down next to his friend to hug her immediately. His mouth dried again when he saw her, and tears formed in his eyes, but he could them blink back. His chest ached from the pressure that fell away from him.

Pepper still looked bad, but at least her wounds were now taken care of. Exhausted, she leaned against him and Tony pressed his head against hers.

"I'm sorry," he whispered desperately as he felt how weak his friend was. "I am sorry. I should have been more careful.” He pulled her closer, hoping to give the same warmth Steve had just given to him. His voice trembled and his hand did not rest on her back. He shook his head as if to prevent himself from a panic attack.

"He's dead," she tried to reassure him. Her voice was higher than usual, but not powerless. "And you were there. Thank you."

Pepper had been abducted because of him, and yet she was the one in control and had to calm him down. Tony was a wreck. Nevertheless, he hugged her and did not let her go. After a few minutes of silence in the room, he asked hoarsely, "What did they do to you?"

She shook her head. "Nothing that doesn't heal again."

At that moment Tony heard heavy footsteps running down the stairs. "You damned, fucking lucky man! You could damn well have died!"

Rhodey ran straight for Tony and Pepper and stopped short of them. "You don’t know how scared I was," he continued softly, pushing himself into the embrace. "You could have told me something, I would have come along. But alone?" Rhodey's voice broke at the end and he quickly hid his face in Tony's hair. "If you do that again, I'll kill you, Stark, I promise you."

Tony could not argue. His throat dried up when he saw how much his friend had cared for him. He knew it was stupid to go alone, but he had no other choice. "If you had come, I would not be here anymore. Or she," he answered softly at some point. He did not want to imagine this scenario, but goose bumps ran down his spine as he thought about who else might be dead at the moment.

A hand dropped to his shoulder and squeezed slightly. Tony did not have to look up to know that it was Steve. "Just don't do it again, okay, Tony?" Rhodey asked. Tony nodded.

The elevator doors opened in the moment and several people stepped out. In the front, there were Fury and Natasha walking, who limped a bit. Tony remembered: She was shot, too.

"Tony!" She exclaimed, relieved and Fury nodded. "Sam and Scott cannot come yet. We will tell them later. How are you? Wanda? Rhodey, Tony? Steve?"

"Thanks for caring, Nat," Clint murmured softly and sarcastically. "I'm good."

The look of Natasha could have killed, but Tony had to smile despite the serious situation. It somehow seemed like three months ago. Rhodey said something and Tony nodded in agreement. They were fine. The grip on his shoulder grew a little stronger, and he realized that Wanda said nothing.

Natasha did not miss that either, and gave Steve and Maximoff a worried look. But finally, she took a breath. "We have just received a video from an unknown source. We were able to decrypt it now and play it," she explained.

Tony, who had since parted from Pepper and Rhodey, sat up straight. The image was projected into the center of the room, from where everyone could see it.

He stiffened as he recognized the face. Pepper was also noticeably restless and Burkwills grin did not help to calm the two. Tony grabbed Pepper's arm to give her a little grip and felt Steve's hands on his shoulders.

"Congratulations," said Burkwill's voice with the typical British accent. Again, nausea came up in Tony, but he tried to calm his breathing. "If you see this, I'm probably dead."

Tony heard his heart beat in silence. "A lot of things are easy to foresee," said Burkwill in the recording. "But not the end of the 24th of July. Since I worked with Vision, I knew I could manipulate him. The Android that accidentally, as he thought, got to me, saw the chance to bring together the two warring groups. Just to save you, Stark. The information he gave me sealed either your downfall, Stark, or mine. I know that Vision never wanted me to hurt you, but his help has done just that. I know that in the end, you’ll want to save your friends - you must save them. I know that Vision will betray me, because in the end, he is weak, just like most other people on this planet. But I do not know how the fight ends. But in any case, it will come to an end."

Again, a pause set in, ghostly calm. Nobody in the room said a word. Pepper clawed her hands into Tony's arm as he tried to calm his breathing.

"Either you're dead or I am. Or both of us. The hate of your comrades will be too great for them to let me live. They are predictable, you may almost say stupid. I don't know how it will end. If I kill you, it will not safe my children. But I will have done to you and your friends what you did to me. I'll get my revenge and it will be beautiful.

If you kill me, then I am with my children and my wife. Then my earthly life is over and I’ll see my family again, and I won't have to think about you monsters anymore. In any case, it will be better for me.

I do not know how it will end. Will you kill me? Will one of your comrades kill me? Will Vision kill me? That would be the most likely scenario. He wants to show you that he can still belong to the team. He'll probably look at you right now and hope you give him a second chance. And you will grant them, for you too are too weak not to."

The silence that spread was even worse than the one before it. Burkwill had made a mistake. Vision would not ask him for a second chance. Vision had taken the second chance and played it out. He was not here anymore. Tony swallowed. In the corner of his eye, he could see Wanda turning away and putting a hand to her mouth. Still, he could hear the murmur that left her mouth. For a moment his gaze was fixed on the girl, who had lost so much in the last few years, but then Burkwill went on.

"But remember what he did to you, Stark. The risk he took was far too big for you to just set it aside. Stark, I want to give you a hint if you're still alive. From enemy to enemy." Burkwill grinned. Tony shuddered at the thought of how crazy this man was. He talked about probably dying and then grinned the next moment.

"The next time you make weapons, check who you give them to."

Burkwill looked at a wristwatch, then the grin widened. "I did not give any of my employees something valuable. The smartest of them, Lady Elise, has an IQ nearly forty points below yours and even she is still predictable. The rest of my workers are even worse: Peter Krum, Kima, General Astif, you know. The whole range of criminals who put their hopes on me to kill you. Because you have wronged them; because their families died because of you. Because you're the monster you claim to fight."

Burkwill grinned into the camera, as if he saw the color leave Tony's face. _Because you are the monster you claim to fight._

‘You know what? I had two kids and a wife,’ Burkwill said again in Tony's head. _A dead child does not just want flowers, it also wants revenge_.

He felt his heart slide down his body. _Because you're the monster you claim to fight_.

He quickly turned his eyes to the ground. He felt his hands begin to sweat as Bucky's face appeared in his mind. _I didn’t want all that_ , he wanted to say, but again, nothing left his mouth. Steve's hand squeezed his shoulder and pulled him back to reality. Still, Burkwill grinned and seemed to look directly at Tony.

"The names of the criminals can be found in the appendix, as well as reasons why they all have to be imprisoned for life. It's dangerous to let them run around. In search of revenge, they would kill innocent people and they would not be better than you. They would be murderers if they are not already. They would be monsters, because they are incapable of being something else. They do not think ahead. Families would be torn apart because they would attack you on the street. Parents would die, children would die."

For a moment Burkwill was quiet again, but this time he did not grin. This time, Tony even thought of seeing something like sadness in his eyes, but that moment was over quickly. "It would be nice to hear the news that you are no longer among the living, but my people are no better than you. Arrest them before they do anything stupid, most of them cannot do anything else."

Burkwill laughed. "I said everything I wanted to say except one thing: Fuck you, Stark. See you in hell."

And with these words, the screen went black and several names opened up.

"Holy ...", Rhodey muttered. Tony nodded. He did not expect that. Burkwill was a psychopath who had not only predicted his own death, and seemed to be okay with it, but also betrayed his own coworkers because they were not smart enough for him. Because they were too dangerous for him. Again, Tony thought of Bucky and immediately recognized what Burkwill meant. Zemo had been one of his co-workers, and Steve's friend was the first victim in search of revenge from his people. Slowly, he put his hand over his mouth. The room was dead quiet and everyone seemed to be thinking.

Tony was still staring at the spot where Burkwill's face has just been visible. His mouth was dry as he thought again about the words he had heard.

_Because you are the monster you claim to fight._

_Fuck you, Stark. See you in hell_.

A sting pierced his chest as he thought it was true. He claimed he was fighting the bad guys, but how many innocent people had been killed?

"Stark?" Fury asked and Tony winced. "Everything alright with you?"

Tony nodded and looked almost reflexively at Steve. As encouraging as he could, he nodded to him.

"We'll check the video and track the names," Natasha explained, quickly recovering her composure. "As it stands, we are through with Burkwill. We have ... A press conference is scheduled for Monday morning."

She wiped her hair off her face and glanced at Clint who then stood up to get out of the room. The other Avengers followed.

"Oh, and Steve," Natasha said then. She ran to him and put a paper in his hand. Her hand laid reassuringly on his arm and she smiled encouragingly at him. "You are now officially allowed to travel through the United States as well as all other states of the world."

_You are free._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah. That was all a little rushed. But I don't really feel the story anymore, you know? I'm just gonna finish this with the epilogue next weekend and then I'll forget about this, haha. 
> 
> So, I hope what Burkwill did makes sense to you. It does for me, but I hope I could deliver that, too. 
> 
> Thanks again, V_cameos, for your comment. It is so nice to read something from you. 
> 
> I hope you all are okay with that chapter. See you next weekend!


	25. Epilogue

It was Tuesday, two weeks later, when Tony was staring at the phone in front of him. "I didn’t know that your wife could bake so well," he eventually brought out and looked at Clint. The archer grinned. "The eighth best thing of her!"

"I would go up to seventh best," Natasha interjected, facing the two men. The living room was flooded with sunlight and Tony even had to squint for a moment to avoid being dazzled. Natasha leaned back in her chair and put her hand on her stomach. "My stomach would say it’s the best thing." Tony chuckled. "I can’t believe you didn't invite us if the food was so fantastic."

His thoughts jumped to Vision, who had always cooked and had become really good. His smile died shortly. "Did you invite Wanda? For the next time?"

"Laura is currently preparing the guestroom with the children. She has to get out of here."

Tony could only nod. In the last two weeks, he had done everything in his power to get the Avengers back on track, but it was hard. Vision had not only become a significant part of _his_ life - and even he felt the emptiness strongly. Rhodey and Pepper had helped him and Wanda in the beginning, but they had not overcome Burkwill’s game unscathed, so Tony sent them to the East Coast last week to stay in a villa for two weeks together - "to see whether it’s worth buying."

The farewell had been difficult, especially after such a short time, but it was the best for them all. Tony had enough to do with Steve, who had barely left the building since it was clear what would happen to Bucky. He had helped and helped him, but a best friend remained a best friend.

The mechanic thought of his boyfriend and the demotivation and disinterest the first days that nearly broke his heart. But he also thought of pride when he knew he was the only one who kept Steve going.

"Where is she now?", Tony distracted himself from his thoughts and spoke again to Wanda. The woman had become quieter since Visions death and she didn’t always appear for dinner. Once she had disappeared for two days and they had all feared the worst, but she had only moved to the city because she needed space.

"Probably outside. The tomatoes are growing very fast, maybe she picks some", Natasha replied. "I came to see her earlier and talked to her. She was very happy about the invitation."

"Who is not with Mama Barton?" Tony smirked. He was very happy that Natasha and Clint were back after the weekend at the Bartons. Now that Lang was back at home and Wilson was still in the infirmary, he had had a hard time taking care of Wanda just with Steve.

"Laura said, you and Steve, you should definitely come when everything calms down here. I think she would also like to have chopped wood again. And the tractor could also be looked at again," Clint addressed him and put his hand on his shoulder. Tony was pleased that "you and Steve" had come so naturally and nodded.

"Steve is not ready yet because of Bucky. But that will be okay soon. Then we’d love to come," he smiled. He leaned back and threw the phone on the table in front of them.

"You really don’t want to move here with your family, Clint?" He finally asked. "I could use a bit more modern company here, it's all so empty right now."

The archer laughed. "I’m glad that Laura allows me to contact you at all. I don’t want to spoil my chance and I also really need the country air. We will visit you again and again. Have to see if little Steves will be around soon! "

"Or little Tonys," Natasha interjected, but Tony laughed indignantly.

"We are not that far yet."

But Clint was not deterred and shook his head. "As I know you, you might even see to it that your children are mixtures of you. Oh God, little genius athletes!"

"Who said anything about kids?" Tony exclaimed, laughing. "I have not even gotten used to be laying on the other side of the bed. We're still a long way from anything else."

"That's what you say now," Natasha countered and Tony sighed.

"I hate you."

"Lie!" Cried Clint.

Tony shook his head, grinning. "Don’t be so sure."

At that moment the elevator doors opened and Tony jumped up immediately when he could see his boyfriend. Steve looked tired but smiled enthusiastically at him anyway.

Tony loved that look. For a week now, Steve came to him every day, because for a week he accompanied Bucky at his therapy. Every day, the soldier, who had been denied nearly all chances of a real recovery at the beginning, got a little bit stronger. It was Steve's achievement, Tony knew that.

"Thank goodness you're there, the two are going crazy!", Tony finally greeted him and threw himself into his arms. His lips searched for each Steve’s and he smelled the smell of nature, sweat and Steve. He could only hear weakly that Clint muttered something like "What did I say? Ministeves."

"How is Bucky?"

"He has done a couple of yards alone today. No help whatsoever!", his eyes sparkled with the tale and Tony buried his head in the shoulder of the bigger one. He was glad to see his boyfriend that happy. "And he thinks your idea of getting dinner is very good, Tony. He is very happy to be invited."

Tony felt the smile on Steve's face. For days he has been talking about Tony, who has actually asked to take Bucky with him to eat in the city. The two had not seen each other too often in the last few days, but Steve was eager for the two men to build a good friendship.

"It wasn’t my idea," Tony tried to play it down.

"Yeah, it was, Tony."

"Only because you made me have it."

He felt the laughter, the whole thorax of the bigger one shook.

"Don’t lie, you wanted to eat with him."

Tony sighed theatrically.

"I heard he's supposed to be nice," he said, although, from the few conversations he'd had with him the last few days, he knew fully well that Bucky was a great person. The first time he had talked to him was because Steve did not want to be alone with him the day Bucky finally woke up. Tony had waited two hours outside the room with the two before he went in because someone had called for him.

The sight had been amazing. Steve lay asleep on the bed of the soldier, looking tired and weak at Tony, making an apologetic grimace. Bucky had repeatedly told him that he was sorry for everything he had done, but Tony could only return the apologies.

 _Because you're the monster you claim to fight_ , it had gone through his mind, which had been bothering him for days. Bucky had fought for him and had extreme problems now. It was no longer the Winter Soldier who had been lying in front of Tony, it was no longer a murderer. It was a colleague, a friend who had done everything to protect Tony and, in the end, apologized for something else.

Tony had thanked him and then pulled up Steve, who had been muttering softly, but had finally walked with him, still half asleep. That was the first night Tony was awake only because of his own nightmares, not because of his boyfriend's.

The second time he had talked to him was when he had brought them something to eat during the therapy sessions. He had been two days after he woke up, and Steve had been too worried that it would be too early, after three shots in the back, more than twelve surgeries and two times in which his heart did not beat in just three days. He'd asked Tony to bring something to eat because he did not want to leave Bucky because anything could still happen, and Tony had come.

He had talked to him a third time when Tony had fallen asleep during the day, waking up in his workshop, shivering and sweat-drenched. His thoughts were interspersed with people who called him a murderer and dead friends. Cities had blown up in his dream and he knew perfectly well that it had been his fault. The tears had blocked his view and air had barely gotten into his lungs when the panic did not fade even after waking up. Friday had informed Steve and he had come immediately. By chance, he and Bucky had just been in the elevator, which only opened when the level of the workshop was reached. Tony had sat against the table, sitting on the floor, ignoring the injured man's presence, only feeling the big, warm hands brushing his back slowly and regularly. It was less than ten minutes that passed before Tony had calmed down, but his stomach was rebelling and he spitting out everything that had accumulated in the last few days.

Bucky had touched Steve in his panic and even tried to help, which was hard due to the injuries. Eventually, at some point, he spat everything that was in him until Tony could only strangle and apologize. He felt bad because he could not calm Steve's panic, but only made things worse, but was more than grateful for Bucky's presence at the moment. It was probably the point where Tony forgot everything the Winter Soldier ever did.

 From that moment on he knew what the man meant to Steve and how much Steve meant to the man. He knew the two needed each other, and it would cost a horde of _o'Kura-Zuraq_ to keep him from engaging with the man.

From that day Tony knew that he needed to get to know him better, and in the evening he suggested taking him to this little Manhattan restaurant where you could sit in one corner almost undisturbed in the evening, at least if Nancy had a shift.

"What are you thinking about, huh?" Steve asked at that moment, finally pulling him out of his thoughts. Still, the two stood in front of the elevator, in a tight embrace, and Tony did not really want to leave. He shook his head and turned away from Steve, only to take his hand and pull him to the couch, where he snuggled up against him.

"Too much, probably," Tony answered truthfully. "Did you know that Laura Barton's cake looks like it's priced?"

He pointed to the cell phone that was still on the table, but Steve nodded. "I travelled the world with him for three months."

Apologetic, Clint shrugged. "Sorry, Tony. Steve, when do you think you can separate yourself from Bucky for a few days so that Tony can get to know Laura's cooking skills?"

Tony cuddled a little further into the soldier's arms, thinking. "In a week or two, everything should be safe enough for him to be alone here. I would not risk it right now; as I know him, he would start training for a marathon the moment I leave the compound. That does not work yet. Soon."

"Sounds good. Incidentally, the kids are currently campaigning for a 'Captain America - Iron Man Cake'. Somehow a mixture. I'm curious to see if Laura can handle it that fast."

Steve wanted to answer something, but Friday's voice came through the speakers through the room. "Excuse me, boss, but a package has just arrived addressed to you. I'll put it in your and Mr. Rogers's room, you should check it out. I think it could be important."

Tony could not help but sigh loudly. "So much work," he mumbled, looking at Steve. "Are you coming with me? Friday usually does not say that, if it's not important. I do not want to open Pandora's box alone."

Steve nodded. "Of course. See you soon?" He addressed the others as he slowly pushed Tony up. "Who is old here now?" He murmured, laughing, but then stood up and grabbed Tony's hand.

Together they climbed into the elevator and waited for the doors to open again.

"That with Bucky really was not my idea!" Tony started again, but Steve only laughed and pulled the smaller one closer.

Meanwhile, his friend should sleep, because the therapy was exhausting. "Do you expect a package?" Steve asked and Tony shook his head.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened and together they got out and headed for Steve's room, where they had been sleeping for two weeks now.

It had happened the first night after her kiss. Tony was allowed to sleep in his own room but had not been able to ask Steve if they wanted to share one. He'd woken up in the night sweaty because Burkwill had followed him in his dreams and all his teammates had either turned against him or been killed by his mistakes.

 _Because you're the monster you claim to fight_.

He had to see if Steve was okay and had sneaked into his room, just to sit on the bed and then be too tired to get up again. The next morning he was cuddled by the larger one, while the soldier had just smiled at him. The decision to move was then just made.

Now he opened the silent door and looked at the small package on the floor. It was barely bigger than a book and very thin. Tony felt his hand start to sweat with excitement. The last time he got a parcel, he found a letter and a phone in it. Steve squeezed his hand and pulled him two steps into the room. He bent down and looked at the package.

"Lasse Van Peeters," he read the sender. "The man who gave us the apartment in Boston."

"I know," Tony recalled, taking the package from Steve's hand. It was very light. "But why is he sending us something?"

Steve shrugged and gestured to Tony to open the package. Still, the two stood facing each other and the mechanic knew that Steve was scrutinizing him as he slowly opened the side of the package.

"A photo," Tony said as he pulled the light frame out of the brown paper. It was a simple wooden frame and in the middle of it was the yellowed photo of a family of five. Tony's forehead wrinkled; he had never seen these people before.

The handsome man's hand was on the shoulder of the younger and smaller woman who laughed happily at the camera. On her arm, she held a baby, who looked startled, and in front of her stood a perhaps seven-year-old girl in a floral dress next to her younger brother, who wore typical pants for the 1940s. The picture was taken in a studio because the background was clearly a wallpaper.

"Do you know these people?" Steve asked, who had meanwhile walked to stand just behind Tony. He shook his head. "Never seen them."

Slowly, Tony turned the photo to the back, hoping to find out who this was, but Steve squeezed his shoulder and picked up the package.

"There’s a letter in there," he said and Tony slowly reached into the paper to pull out the note.

The stationery was still white, unlike the photo, and handwritten. Tony looked at Steve, who gave him an encouraging squeeze before turning to the letter.

 _He asked me not to tell you this_ , Tony read quietly and knew Steve was doing the same. Tony gulped over the curious letterhead and once turned the paper to see if he was reading the wrong page, but the back was empty.

_But I think you should hear this story. Your red friend was supposed to kill you all. The gas that made your comrades all fall asleep while you were out to look for James Burkwill would have killed them all. That was the job the man had given the android._

Tony looked up and swallowed. He became nervous, grabbed Steves hand but continued reading.

_It could have ended differently. I do not know if I could still write to you, Stark, because you would probably have been dead. But the Android came to me and gave me a counter gas and the key to closing the deadly gas supply. He said that as soon as he left, I should do it, not sooner, but certainly not later. They would all need each other and he could not risk that his actions were already noticed. The danger would be too great for you all._

Tony's mouth was dry when he read and it hurt when he remembered to swallow. He felt Steve slipping closer to him.

_So I closed the valve just after he flew and saved your comrades._

_You would never know that story if I did not tell you. For you and your comrades, it would always look like they were all asleep and noticed your disappearance in time. Not even Captain America, who'd first entered the apartment when the first gas had flowed in, could remember that. He woke up, not even knowing he had slept. That's the problem of the gas. Stories are changed and do not reflect the true value and heroism of those involved._

_But my letter is not about me or this story that should be behind you now. It's about another story that you would never know because it was changed. You have already seen the photo. I want to tell you the story behind this picture_.

Tony looked up and looked at the photo again. He still could not make out a familiar face and became increasingly restless.

_On this picture, you can see Jamie Handerson with his wife and three children in 1943. I assume that you have heard the more famous story: that Handerson died in the war after a few weeks and his parents and his siblings were left behind._

_He probably did not think so when he was sitting in the room you chose, in the evening of 1917. He was alone, scared. He had great pressure on his shoulders as the only male heir of the farm, though his parents and siblings avoided him._

_Then he was drafted into the war, into the war he never wanted to happen, and yet he had to go because he knew he was made for it. He was smart and handsome and had to protect his family and his homeland. He thought he hated it, but then he arrived in Europe and knew it would be different. He has_ _written_ _a diary. The first entries were barren and meager, but then he kept writing about the woman who worked in the care. A British woman who bugged him, heckled him, even opened up less food. He probably fell in love._

Tony's mouth fell open and he knew Steve was the same. This story of the stranger boy touched him.

_Then Jamie was hit by the grenade and the entries stopped. They stopped until a month later. He should have been sent back because the doctors had done a miracle: they had saved the boy, who should have been dead, but Handerson did not want to go back. He could have gone home. He could have stopped, could have gone to safety._

_But he stayed there at the front. The Germans fired every night and every day and yet he remained, the injured boy, because his comrades had become important to him, like this woman who always smiled at him while she annoyed him._

_But you certainly don’t want to know all of that that well. I assume that you know how Handerson felt._

_The war was soon over, but instead of going home, where his old work, his old family, his old friends were, who only wanted him to adopt his old form and habits, he stayed in Europe and asked them Woman from the kitchen for her name._

_They went out together and eventually got togehter, both of whom felt for weeks and months the strong bound. Jamie married Birgit three years later and bought this residence in the south of London. He no longer wrote to his family, because they wanted to hold him back, to withdraw. He knew he had found the right thing in the fight that was not his. In the fight he never wanted. And yet he had found exactly what he wanted._

_Jamie Handerson died peacefully in 1986. His wife died two years later. Their children now have their own children and grandchildren, but all have mourned for their loss because they grew up in one of the happiest families in the world, as they themselves said_.

_I thought you should know the true story of Jamie Handerson._

 

_If you want, I can get the boy's diary and send it to you._

_I thank you for your efforts in the fight against Burkwill, against all the evil in this world._

_Lasse van Peeters._

 

Only then did Tony realize that tears had once again left his eyes and he turned to Steve. Strong arms embraced him and pulled him as close to the soldier as possible.

He inhaled the smell of the bigger one and listened to the reassuring heartbeat. He raised his head and pressed his lips to Steve's, who returned the kiss warmly and familiarly.

Only for a brief moment, the two broke away, in which they whispered exactly the same thing at the same time: "I love you."

They both felt the smile when they kissed again.

 

And Tony knew for a fact that he had found his personal Birgit Handerson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so apparently I think Tuesdays are weekends, too, so here's the chapter. 
> 
> So, this is the very last chapter of this story. I just brought in this giant metaphor. I hope it's understandable. 
> 
> Thank you, V_cameos for your comment on the last chapter. It's super nice from you to take the time.   
> Thank you all for the kudos and comments all of this!
> 
> I hope all of you enjoyed this story. Thanks for reading!  
> I hope you all have a nice time!


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